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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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Slow-motion vote count is less than meets the eye
Nine days after voting ended, it's clear that the election could take a while to wind down. That's not because it was particularly close: Biden has cleared a 5-million-vote edge over Trump, in what's looking like a record-turnout election that remains on track to deliver him as many electoral votes -- 306 -- as Trump won in 2016.
But the manual recount of votes in Georgia announced Wednesday will be painstaking and is unlikely to finish until a week from Friday. As the GOP secretary of state has acknowledged, this is exceedingly unlikely to change the margins in Georgia -- and, of course, Trump needs even bigger turnabouts in states he lost more decisively, including Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, to have a plausible chance at a second term.
Does it matter? Not to Biden, who is running an orderly transition that stands in contrast with the chaos still coming from the White House. His choice of Ron Klain as chief of staff is another signal about normalcy -- and a tacit acknowledgement that Biden understands concerns raised on his left.
Vote counting, though, seems destined to drag beyond this month. That would mark a win, under the circumstances, for the Trump team -- with twin goals of seeing mistrust in the process and hoping for the equivalent of legal miracles.
It has become more clear in Washington and world capitals that Biden has won and will be the next president.
Trump is getting his wish, at least in one state, in slowing the process down. The institutions of governance, though, are holding through the delay -- at least until the next flurry comes from the president.
-ABC News Political Director Rick Klein
Trump tweets support for McDaniel to continue leading GOP
The president tweeted Wednesday night his endorsement for current GOP Chair Ronna McDaniel to continue leading the Republican Party, and again falsely claimed he will win the election.
She is expected to seek a third term as RNC chairwoman, a source close to McDaniel tells ABC News.
-ABC News' Will Steakin
Biden speaks with leaders from Australia, Japan and South Korea
Biden held more calls with world leaders Wednesday, speaking with Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan and President Moon Jae-in of the Republic of Korea.
This brings Biden’s total number of calls with world leaders to eight, including his calls with leaders from France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany from the previous two days.
-ABC News' Molly Nagle
Biden names Ron Klain White House chief of staff
President-elect Joe Biden has named Ron Klain his White House chief of staff, ABC News has confirmed.
The announcement of a chief of staff typically comes as one of the first big decisions for a president-elect -- crucial because the person in that role can help determine a president's style of governing.
Klain is Biden's former chief of staff, who led the Obama administration's response to the Ebola virus. He was considered a leading contender, in part because of the urgent need to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
"It's the honor of a lifetime to serve President-elect Biden in this role, and I am humbled by his confidence," Klain said in a news release about the announcement. "I look forward to helping him and the Vice President-elect assemble a talented and diverse team to work in the White House, as we tackle their ambitious agenda for change, and seek to heal the divides in our country."
Klain served as a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016, and has served as an executive at Revolution LLC, an investment firm founded by AOL founder Steve Case.
"His deep, varied experience and capacity to work with people all across the political spectrum is precisely what I need in a White House chief of staff as we confront this moment of crisis and bring our country together again," Biden said of Klain in the statement.
-ABC News' Katherine Faulders, Molly Nagle, John Santucci and Benjamin Siegel