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Trump-Biden transition updates: At least 20 arrested, 1 stabbed at DC protests
The event was largely peaceful, but grew violent after crowds thinned at night.
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 one week after Biden was projected as the winner of the presidential race.
Trump has largely hunkered down inside the White House since the election, but on Saturday his motorcade drove drove past supporters gathered to rally in Washington, D.C., on his way to play golf.
Biden, meanwhile, is pressing forward, meeting with transition advisers in Delaware and calling Trump's refusal to concede "an embarrassment."
The Biden transition team and the Trump administration are in a standoff over whether Biden should be granted access to federal resources allocated for the transition of power. The General Services Administration, headed by a Trump appointee, has yet to officially recognize Biden as the victor in the election, preventing Biden's team from gaining full access to government funds and security information.
But a growing number of Republican senators are calling on the administration to start giving Biden classified intelligence briefings, a sign that support for Trump's refusal to concede the election may be waning among his allies on Capitol Hill.
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Biden pledges to improve cooperation with allies 5 years after Paris terrorist attacks
Biden issued a statement Friday morning remembering the five-year anniversary of the ISIS terrorist attacks in Paris and pledging to restore and improve cooperation with allies as president.
“This was an assault not just on the people of Paris but against our common humanity and shared values,” Biden wrote. “My administration will work steadfastly to protect the safety and security of Americans and our allies and partners, countering terrorism and extremist violence in all of its forms -- no matter the ideology or origin.”
While Trump has taken an isolationist approach to foreign policy, pushing the slogan, "America First," Biden ran -- and won -- on a platform of restoring relationships with foreign allies.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Overview: Trump has Operation Warp Speed meeting, Biden meets with transition advisers
Amid heavy criticism that Trump has demonstrated little to no evidence that he is engaged in leading on the coronavirus pandemic in the post-election season, and as cases continue to rise, his public schedule for Friday shows he’s slated to receive an update on Operation Warp Speed, his administration’s plan for a coronavirus vaccine.
The meeting comes in the same week the drug company Pfizer said that its COVID-19 vaccine may be 90% effective. Trump questioned the timing of Pfizer’s announcement earlier in the week, saying it didn’t “have the courage” to announce a vaccine before the election.
Trump last addressed reporters eight days ago -- the longest stretch of silence in his presidency --as he meets with advisers behind closed doors to discuss his options forward.
Biden, meanwhile, strengthened his Electoral College margin over Trump overnight, taking Arizona's 11 electoral votes and raising his total to 290 votes to Trump’s 217.
On Friday, Biden is in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, continuing to meet with transition advisers.
-ABC News' Jordyn Phelps
Audit of presidential race begins in Georgia
County election officials in Georgia have begun the time-consuming, labor intensive process of auditing -- by hand -- every one of the state’s nearly 5 million votes cast in the presidential race.
The audits -- which stem from a state law, not because of any suspected problems with the results -- must finish by midnight next Wednesday, so many election workers will continue through the weekend to complete it in time.
Biden is currently leading in Georgia by a wide margin of roughly 14,000 votes, so it’s unlikely Trump will overcome his lead in an audit -- which rarely change election outcomes.
However, with Biden’s win in Arizona overnight, he wouldn’t even need Georgia’s 16 electoral votes to win. If the audit were to somehow, despite all odds, flip the state in Trump’s favor -- and if Trump were to also take North Carolina as he’s on track to -- he would be at 248 electoral votes, still short of the 270 needed to be president.
-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan
Biden offers glimpses of new normalcy: ANALYSIS
There's wanting the presidency, and then there's acting like you want the job.
Biden spent the week fielding calls from world leaders, naming key advisers and imploring Americans to wear masks to protect themselves and the country from COVID-19.
Trump had what was probably the quietest week of his presidency in terms of public appearances. But it was a consequential week nonetheless.
Trump fired his defense secretary and summarily replaced other key officials, with more firings expected. His campaign lawyers sought to upend election results across several states. While the president found time to rage-tweet about Fox News, he did not address the spread of the coronavirus that is threatening the holiday season.
Signs are emerging of Trump defenders losing patience with the tactics and delays. A growing group of Republican lawmakers are insisting that Biden start getting intelligence briefings and are acknowledging publicly that election results are highly unlikely to change.
Biden continues to appear unbothered by the noise. That, in a way, was his appeal from the start -- not to replace Trump with an equal and opposite force, but to provide a different kind of contrast: normalcy, and even sometimes silence.
-ABC News’ Political Director Rick Klein