Our live coverage has ended. Read more about the Biden transition here.
President-elect Joe Biden has selected retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, the former commander of US Central command, to be his secretary of defense, a source familiar with the decision tells CNN.
If confirmed by the Senate, Austin would be the first Black man to lead the Department of Defense.
In addition to serving as commander of United States Central Command, Austin previously served as the vice chief of staff of the Army.
Politico was first to report on Biden’s selection of Austin.
President-elect Joe Biden will receive the President’s Daily Brief separately from Vice President-elect Kamala Harris tomorrow before the pair introduce the health nominees and appointees for their incoming administration.
Biden and Harris will then participate in a virtual meeting with civil rights leaders, according to the transition team.
President-elect Biden will announce his defense secretary nominee on Friday, but he is not expected to unveil his attorney general pick this week, an official tells CNN.
An announcement regarding economic Cabinet positions is expected on Wednesday.
But an attorney general announcement will likely not be made until next week — at the earliest, the official said.
A statement to the pool went out clarifying earlier confusion from Biden’s comments made on Monday afternoon. Biden had said earlier Monday that he planned to announce his nomination for secretary of defense on Friday and attorney general this week.
“President-elect Biden will announce additional members of his cabinet before Christmas, including his nominee for Secretary of Defense and members of his economic and domestic cabinet before the end of this week,” the statement said.
President Trump is planning a return trip to Georgia in support of the GOP candidates in the state’s Senate runoff election, a GOP source familiar with the plans tells CNN.
The date and time of his visit are still being worked out.
Trump visited the state Saturday to rally in support of Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler ahead of January’s Senate runoff elections.
Vice President Mike Pence is also scheduled to visit the state Thursday for an event in support of the GOP candidates, a Republican source involved in the Georgia Senate runoffs tells CNN. The event is expected to take place in Augusta.
Politico was first to report Trump and Pence’s trip to Georgia.
The Biden advisory board and transition team have not yet seen a detailed plan for vaccine distribution and it is concerning them, according to one of its members, Dr. Celine Gounder.
“I think that the President-elect and the Vice President-elect really do see this as a moment for the nation to heal, to come together, to unite in common cause against the virus,” Gounder said during the 2020 TIME Person of the Year Debate webinar. “So that is certainly going to be an important through line through all of what we’re doing moving forward.”
Gounder said the transition team has begun having meetings with the current administration to get an inside look at the data and plans.
“And we are concerned about that given that we have not seen very detailed plans for testing and other measures throughout this pandemic,” she said.
Gounder said tests were purchased for and sent to states but are, in some cases, still sitting in warehouses because there wasn’t a good system distributing and making use of them.
“It’s not to say that it will be a repeat of history with vaccines, but we are concerned,” she said. “And we are very much looking forward to seeing those plans in the near future.”
President Trump’s staunchest defenders on Capitol Hill are urging him not to concede even after President-elect Joe Biden wins the Electoral College vote next week, calling on their party’s leader to battle it out all the way to the House floor in January amid his unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud.
The view of Trump’s defenders is at odds with many top congressional Republicans, including leaders of the Senate, who believe the election will officially be over on Dec. 14 when electors cast their vote and make Biden’s win official — even though the Democrat’s victory in the presidential race has been clear for weeks.
But conservative House Republicans argue that next week doesn’t mark the end of Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results, which he has failed to do through scores of fruitless lawsuits and brazen efforts to pressure state and local leaders to subvert the will of voters and appoint new slates of electors to the Electoral College. They said that Congress should engage in a full-throated debate over the results in key states over their allegations of fraud, which have yet to be borne out in court.
Asked if Trump should concede after Dec. 14, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said bluntly: “No. No way, no way, no way.”
Some context: It is not unusual for a losing candidate’s most fervent supporters to take their case to the House floor – something that occurred after the 2016, 2004 and 2000 presidential races. But it is unusual for the losing candidate to mount a weeks-long public campaign aimed at sowing discord and distrust over a pillar of democracy, something that Trump has done relentlessly since losing the race.
Even if Trump loses a bevy of GOP support for his unprecedented quest after next week, the backing of his staunchest supporters is likely to only encourage the volatile President to continue his barrage of attacks against the integrity of the elections.
Lauren Koenig contributed to this report.
Georgia has re-certified the results of the presidential election, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a news release.
The results reaffirmed that President-elect Joe Biden as the winner following three counts of ballots.
Monday’s certification locks in the state’s results for Biden before the Dec. 14 Electoral College vote, though President Trump has continued to c against Raffensperger, a Republican, and called for additional signature verification — which is, at this point, procedurally impossible.
A federal judge in Georgia dismissed two motions on Monday morning brought by attorney Sidney Powell aimed at reversing the election results in that state.
“The plaintiffs do not have standing to bring these claims,” Judge Timothy Batten ruled from the bench immediately following about an hour of arguments.
Judge Batten also dissolved the temporary restraining order that stopped election officials from clearing the latest election data from Dominion voting machines in Cobb, Gwinnett and Cherokee Counties. Election officials in Georgia have said the machines will be needed for early voting that starts in the Senate runoff election in a week.
Batten further said that the plaintiffs waited too long to take such action. “This suit could have been brought months ago before the election, at the time the machines were adopted. The relief they seek, this court cannot grant.”
Finally, Batten called the relief Powell was seeking “the most extraordinary relief ever sought in any federal court,” as it pertains to elections. “They want to substitute the judgement of this court for that of two and a half million Georgia voters who voted for Joe Biden. This I am unwilling to do.”
Despite what President Trump has said publicly, there is a sense developing within his legal team and what remains of his campaign staff that their efforts to overturn or delay the results of the election are coming to an end, multiple sources tell CNN.
Trump said in a 46-minute video released last week that they would continue to file lawsuits, but his legal team has held fewer meetings and strategy calls in the last several days.
Following Rudy Giuliani’s hospitalization, staffers only speculated further that it’s a matter of time before their legal efforts come to a halt completely. Giuliani is currently expected to appear via Zoom in front of a hearing with Georgia House delegates Thursday, though whether he ultimately does will depend on his condition, a source said.
Officials are also aware they are rapidly approaching deadlines that will certify results of the election and final rulings in some of their legal challenges.
Some campaign staff had their contract extended through the end of the year, but decisions do not appear to have been made beyond that, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris underwent PCR testing for Covid-19 today, and Covid-19 was not detected, according to a Harris aide.
President-elect Joe Biden’s pick to lead the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said in a tweet Monday that she would be “honored” to lead the organization.
Walensky is an infectious disease expert who works at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. She is also a CNN contributor.
Read the tweet:
Dr. Anthony Fauci will not attend President-elect Joe Biden’s event introducing his health team on Tuesday, but they’re looking at the possibility of having him join virtually in some way, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.
Some more context: On Monday, Biden announced that Fauci will serve as chief medical adviser to the President on Covid-19 and will also continue in his role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Georgia is set to re-certify the results of the November presidential election, after a third count of the votes.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said he “will be re-certifying our state’s election results,” today during a morning news conference at the state capitol. President-elect Joe Biden will carry the state.
Gabriel Sterling, voting implementation manager, said they are waiting on one county’s election board to meet before they will be able to re-certify.
Raffensperger ended his remarks saying it’s time to look toward the runoff election.
“It is now time to direct our energies towards the January 5 runoff election, and then to making Georgia an even better place to grow your businesses, raise your families, and enjoy prosperity here in Georgia,” Raffensperger said.
Trump’s defeat is the first time a Republican has failed to carry the state since 1992. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Georgia, which Biden won by about 12,000 votes. Nearly 5 million votes were cast statewide.
A federal court in Michigan threw out the latest lawsuit seeking to overturn election results in the state, this time shutting down efforts led by Sidney Powell, a former Trump advisor who was disavowed by the campaign.
The judges determined that the lawsuit was full of “nothing but speculation and conjecture” and that Powell and her clients’ goal of forcing the state’s electors to vote for Trump even though Joe Biden won the state, was not only impossible since the state has already certified its results, it was also meant to disenfranchise voters.
The court went as far as to argue that the plaintiffs were less interested in actually achieving their relief and more focused on “the impact of their allegations on People’s faith in the democratic process and their trust in our government.”
Led by Powell, plaintiffs in this case relied on recycled allegations, many of which were made by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and the witnesses he brought forward to testify in front of the Michigan House Oversight Committee last week. For example, plaintiffs in the case alleged that the ballot tabulating software used in the November election mirrored a coordinated “criminal conspiracy” used to manipulate Venezuelan elections in favor of the late Hugo Chávez.
The Michigan ruling is the latest defeat in a weeks-long effort by the Trump campaign or Trump allies seeking to overturn election results across the country.
To date, the Trump campaign and Trump allies have won one case in Pennsylvania concerning absentee voters and have lost or withdrawn about 40 cases.
The Biden Presidential Inaugural Committee announced five new co-chairs this morning, led by key Biden ally South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn.
He will be joined by…
“Kamala and I are honored and grateful to these leaders for joining our inaugural committee as co-chairs and helping to organize a safe inauguration for all Americans. These leaders reflect the strength, spirit, and diversity of America and have always held a steadfast commitment to restoring the soul of the nation, building back the middle class, and unifying the country. We are proud of their support and know they will help plan an inauguration that will reflect our nation’s shared values,” President-elect Joe Biden said in a statement.
Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and her Democratic opponent Rev. Raphael Warnock traded sharp attacks during a debate Sunday evening ahead of a pivotal runoff election next month.
The outcome of their race, along with the result of a second Georgia runoff in January between incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue and his Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff, will determine control of the Senate in the new Congress.
If either Republican incumbent holds onto their seat, the GOP will be poised to maintain its Senate majority. But if both Democrats win, it would bring the balance of power to 50-50 in the upper chamber with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris able to step in and cast tie breaking votes.
If you missed last night’s debate, here are some takeaways:
Loeffler dodges on Trump’s baseless election claims
Loeffler was asked repeatedly during the debate to weigh in on President Donald Trump’s false claims that the election was rigged and did not directly answer questions on several occasions.
The Georgia senator did not explicitly say that she believes the presidential election was rigged when asked, but did say “it’s very clear that there were issues in this election.”
Loeffler said Trump has “every right to every legal recourse,” when asked if she stands by the President’s baseless narrative about the election, and then attempted to turn attention to her own Senate race.
Warnock sidesteps on Supreme Court answer and Covid-19 relief cost
Warnock was questioned during the debate about what topline number for total cost he would support for a new Covid relief package in Congress, as lawmakers in Washington are searching for a deal to pass such a proposal before the end of the year.
When asked to specify a number, he sidestepped, saying, “Look, I think that we should at least make sure that whatever we do, workers are at the center of that relief.”
The Democratic challenger also sidestepped when asked whether he supports expanding the number of justices on the Supreme Court to offset recent appointments to the bench from Trump and whether he thinks there should be term limits for justices.
Both candidates portray opponent as out of touch with voters
The debate featured pointed lines of attack traded between the two candidates who both attempted to make the case that their opponent is out of touch with voters.
Loeffler repeatedly referred to her Democratic opponent as a “radical liberal” – unwaveringly sticking to talking points to portray Warnock as extremely far left.
Warnock, for his part, targeted the GOP senator over stock transactions that have been the subject of intense scrutiny for their timing related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Read more takeaways here.
Members of the Biden transition team are scheduled to receive briefings from the Pentagon’s intelligence agencies beginning on Monday, according to defense officials.
The briefings are to take place days after, according to a former senior intelligence official familiar with intelligence transition discussions, that the Pentagon had blocked the Biden transition team’s access to the Department of Defense’s intelligence agencies such as the NSA and Defense Intelligence Agency.
The Department of Defense strongly denied claims that it had hindered the briefings, with a spokesman calling the claims “demonstrably false and patently insulting.”
Multiple Pentagon officials blamed the meetings being delayed on the Biden transition organization, saying the members of its intelligence transition team reached out directly to the Pentagon’s intelligence agencies, which they said was a violation of the transition arrangement agreed to with the Biden camp.
“We can’t help them if they can’t read an org chart,” a defense official told CNN.
“That was more of an internal issue for the Biden team than a DoD issue,” another defense official said.
Biden transition team spokesman Ned Price declined to comment about the briefings.
Pentagon officials also said that this week’s briefings between defense intelligence officials and the Biden transition team were scheduled prior to reports of the Pentagon denying access being published by multiple news outlets.
President-elect Joe Biden is nominating California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the transition team announced today.
If confirmed by the United States Senate, Becerra would serve a critical role in the administration’s response to a pandemic that has killed more than 282,000 Americans as of Sunday evening.
Becerra, a former member of Congress, emerged as the leading contender for the critical role after other candidates with more health care expertise were ruled out.
The New York Times was first to report the expected nomination.
Here are some key things to know about Becerra:
Read more here.
