Trump campaign distances itself from attorney Sidney Powell: Transition updates

The campaign now says she's not a member of the president's legal team.

President-elect Joe Biden is moving forward with transition plans, capping a tumultuous and tension-filled campaign during a historic pandemic against President Donald Trump, who still refuses to concede the election two weeks after Biden was projected as the winner and is taking extraordinary moves to challenge the results.

Running out of legal alternatives to override the election loss, Trump invited Michigan's top Republican state lawmakers to visit the White House on Friday, as he and allies pursue a pressure campaign to overturn results in a state Biden won by more than 150,000 votes.

Despite Trump's roadblocks and his administration refusing to recognize Biden as the president-elect, Biden is forging ahead as he prepares to announce key Cabinet positions.

Though Trump has alleged widespread voter fraud, he and his campaign haven't been able to provide the evidence to substantiate their claims and the majority of their lawsuits have already resulted in unfavorable outcomes.


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Trump delivers remarks on drug prices, falsely claims he won election 

Trump emerged before cameras on Friday afternoon to deliver remarks on lowering prescription drug prices which quickly unraveled into an attack on big pharmaceutical companies he claimed were working against him and a false declaration that he won the election.

“Big pharma ran million dollars of negative advertisements against me during the campaign -- which I won, by the way, but you know. We will find that out,” Trump said.

Turning to the coronavirus and promising news of vaccines, Trump accused Pfizer of delaying the release of its preliminary vaccine data until after the election as retribution for Trump's announcement of new rules designed to lower drug prices.

“So they waited and waited and waited and they thought they’d come out with it a few days after the election. And it would probably have had an impact. Who knows? Maybe it wouldn't have,” Trump said.

He left the event without taking questions from reporters. Since the election, Trump has held just three public events at which he hasn't taken any questions.

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McEnany confirms Michigan lawmakers meeting with Trump

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Friday afternoon, at her first briefing at the White House in 50 days, confirmed that Trump will be meeting with Michigan lawmakers at the White House later in the day.

Asked what Trump plans to discuss with them and whether he will he ask them to have the state legislature appoint electors who will support his reelection, McEnany misleadingly cast the meeting as a routine event.

"So he will be meeting later on. This is not an advocacy meeting. There will be no one from the campaign there. He routinely meets with lawmakers from all across the country," McEnany said.

The invitation from Trump comes ahead of the state's board of canvassers meeting on Monday to certify the vote and amid the Trump campaign's ongoing fight over the outcome of the election, with relentless unsubstantiated claims of fraud and a string of unsuccessful legal challenges to the results.

McEnany, who regularly changes hats between White House press secretary and Trump campaign adviser, deferred to the campaign when asked what the strategy would be to overturn the election but repeatedly referred to “ongoing litigation."

Notably, the Trump campaign has had just one victory in court so far that still stands out of the 19 lawsuits it has filed since Election Day.

Asked about Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander calling on the Trump administration to at least allow Biden’s team the ability to reach out to agencies and access government data, McEnany cited the Presidential Transition Act in trying to argue that it’s the law -- and not the president’s refusal to concede -- that is preventing that from happening.

-ABC News' Ben Gittleson, Jordyn Phelps and Olivia Rubin


Michigan House speaker confirms he'll meet with Trump

Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield, among the Republican state lawmakers expected to meet with Trump , tweeted he "won't apologize" for accepting a meeting with the president, adding that he's honored to speak with him.

The White House meeting comes ahead of the Michigan board of canvassers convening on Monday to review and certify the state's electoral results.

-ABC News' Kendall Karson


Pence campaigns for Senate runoffs as balance of power hangs on Georgia

As the balance of power in the Senate -- and Biden's subsequent ability to pass the big-ticket legislation he's hoping for -- hangs on two election runoffs in Georgia, Republicans are rallying in the state to defend their majority in Washington.

Vice President Mike Pence touched down in Georgia Friday afternoon for two campaign events and was greeted by Gov. Brian Kemp and incumbent Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler upon his arrival. They all exchanged fist bumps while donning masks.

After exchanging pleasantries, Pence, Perdue and Loeffler posed together for the cameras.

Loeffler is facing a challenge from Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, while Purdue is facing Jon Ossoff, who nearly flipped Georgia’s 6th Congressional District for Democrats in a special election in 2017. If Democrats win both races, the Senate will be represented equally by the two parties, and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will step in to break the tie on any votes.

Democrats see promise in the purple state as Biden beat Trump by more than 12,000 votes there, audit results confirmed Thursday.

-ABC News' Terrance Smith


Trump campaign distances itself from attorney Sidney Powell

The Trump campaign released a statement Sunday night distancing itself from attorney Sidney Powell, saying she's not a member of the "Trump Legal Team," despite President Trump previously announcing that she was.

"Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity," Trump campaign attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis said in a statement.

The statement comes after Powell advanced a series of unproven election claims in an interview on Newsmax and at a recent press conference on behalf of the campaign, portions of which were retweeted by the official GOP Twitter account.

The president last week announced Powell as a member of his legal team along with Giuliani, Ellis, and attorneys Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing.