Giuliani says he won’t be on Trump impeachment defense team

Trump was impeached by the House for a second time last week.

President Donald Trump is slated to hand over control of the White House to President-elect Joe Biden in three days.

The House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump last Wednesday on an article for "incitement of insurrection" for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol -- making him the only president to be impeached twice.


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Maria Zuber to serve on 4th White House administration 

In addition to Frances Arnold, Maria Zuber will co-chair the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

This will be her fourth time serving in a White House administration.

"I look forward to continuing to advocate for science and a nonpartisan manner in this new role," said Zuber, who is Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s vice president for research and E. A. Griswold professor of geophysics. "I am thrilled with the challenge and the opportunity to work together with the scientific leadership of this administration to restore trust in science and pursue breakthroughs that benefit all people."

Zuber said that the work is critical "as the pandemic continues to rage."

Beyond the pandemic, she highlighted other areas of focus for the team, including the "transition to a zero-carbon energy system, our need to create good-paying jobs of the future and other aspects of our existential fight against climate change."

Zuber grew up in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, which she described as once being coal country. Both of her grandparents mined and died of black lung, she said, while noting that communities like hers still haven't recovered long after mining jobs have left.

"I could not be more excited for the efforts of this administration to deploy science to help breathe new life into these places, into so many communities large and small that are hurting today," she said. "Bold scientific leadership will be a critical component of building back better, guarding our health and safety, helping spark new, clean industries, and keeping America competitive in the race for those well-paying jobs of the future."

Zuber was the first woman to lead a NASA spacecraft mission and the first woman to lead a science department at MIT.

In 2004, former President George W. Bush appointed her to the Presidential Commission on the Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy. In 2013, former President Barack Obama appointed her to the National Science Board, and President Trump reappointed her in 2018.


Francis Arnold to co-chair President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

During remarks on Saturday, Biden introduced Francis Arnold as co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and part of the first all-women team to lead the council. Arnold is the first woman in American history to receive a Nobel Prize in Chemistry and is currently the Linus Pauling professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering, and biochemistry and director of the Rosen Bioengineering Center at the California Institute of Technology. Arnold has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Known for her contributions to renewable energy, Arnold co-founded three biotechnology companies in sustainable chemistry and agriculture.

"My belief has grown that our highest responsibility in each generation is to preserve our fragile planet, prepare our economy and our workforce for the future and pass on a better world," Arnold said in her remarks Saturday.

"When we put science back to work for the benefit of all people, revitalizing our economy, fueling our climate response, broadening our perspective as we rebuild around greater equity and opportunity, we are making a society that is worth passing on to our children and our grandchildren. It is an act of love. I am honored by the opportunity to help nurture this effort," Arnold said.


Alondra Nelson says she will focus on science and tech that 'reflects us all'

As deputy director for science and society for the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Alondra Nelson said she wants to promote scientific research that is "honest and inclusive."

"As a Black woman researcher, I am keenly aware of those who are missing from these rooms," Nelson said Saturday during a press briefing introducing key members of the Biden administration's science team. "I believe we have a responsibility to work together to make sure that our science and technology reflects us and when it does, that it reflects all of us. That it reflects who we are together."

Nelson, president of the Social Science Research Council and a Princeton University professor, is known for her research at the intersection of science, politics and social inequality.

"There has never been a more important moment for scientific development -- to get scientific development right or to situate that development in our values of equality, accountability, justice, and trustworthiness," Nelson said.


Biden's presidential science adviser will be elevated to a cabinet-level position

Eric Lander is Biden's nominee for presidential science adviser, a position Biden announced Saturday he is elevating to a Cabinet-level position for the first time in U.S. history.

Lander served as the co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) during the Obama-Biden administration. He currently serves as president and the founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Landon is also one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project.

"It's not hyperbole to suggest that Dr. Lander's work has changed the course of human history. His role in helping us map the genome, pull back the curtain on human disease, allowing scientists ever since and for generations to come to explore the molecular basis for some of the most devastating illnesses affecting our world," Biden said.

In his remarks Saturday, Lander said, "The President-Elect knows that science and technology will be crucial in meeting this moment," adding that "America's greatest asset, I think, is our unrivaled diversity. After all, scientific progress is about seeing something that no one’s ever seen before. Because they bring a different lens, different experiences, different questions, different passions. No one can top America in that regard. But we have to ensure that everyone not only has a seat at the table, but a place at the lab bench."


Overview: Trump to speak in Texas, Biden team to push national security confirmations

When he leaves for Alamo, Texas, Tuesday morning, it will be President Trump's first time in public since last Wednesday -- the day his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol after he encouraged a crowd of thousands, at a rally beforehand, to put pressure on lawmakers affirming Biden's victory in Congress.

Apart from posting video on Twitter last Thursday, before the platform permanently suspended his account, the president has remained behind closed doors at the White House -- spending his final days in office out of the public eye -- but is expected to break his silence with afternoon remarks.

"President Trump is expected to travel to Alamo, Texas, on Tuesday to mark the completion of more than 400 miles of border wall -- a promise made, promise kept -- and his administration's efforts to reform our broken immigration system," White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere told reporters ahead of the visit.

The president is facing renewed calls from congressional Democrats to be removed from office in the wake of last week's riot, with the House poised to pass an impeachment resolution as early as Wednesday charging the president with incitement of insurrection -- and setting Trump up to be the first president in history to be impeached twice.

Trump, for the first time since the assault, spoke with Vice President Mike Pence at the urging of his advisers and allies in an Oval Office meeting Monday that lasted 90 minutes and was friendly in nature, according to White House officials briefed on the meeting. Pence is not expected to invoke the 25th Amendment as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called on him to do.

Biden, on Tuesday, will receive the President’s Daily Brief and meet with advisers, while his transition team and allies in Congress begin a push to confirm his national security nominees so they're in place next week, with priority on the confirmation of Department of Homeland Security Secretary-designate Alejandro Mayorkas.

Defense Secretary-designate Gen. Lloyd Austin, nominee for Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Secretary of State-designate Tony Blinken will also be part of the push ahead of their hearings on Capitol Hill.

Biden’s nominees may also need now to contend with an impeachment trial in the Senate. Biden suggested in remarks Monday the Senate look into splitting the its time in order to confirm his nominees, pass COVID-19 relief and deal with a presidential impeachment.

-ABC News' John Parkinson, Ben Gittleson and Molly Nagle