唐纳德·特朗普总统将在35天后将白宫控制权移交给当选总统乔·拜登。
拜登和哈里斯与州长讨论新冠肺炎对变焦电话的回应
在与28位州长的电话会议上，当选总统乔·拜登和副总统当选人卡马拉·哈里斯讨论了新冠肺炎(新型冠状病毒肺炎)以及联邦政府和州政府如何合作分发疫苗。
哈里斯在电话的开头说，作为副总统，她的大门永远向州长敞开。
“谈到这场流行病，谈到经济复苏，谈到美国人民最关心的问题，我认为他们真的不在乎我们是民主党人还是共和党人，”她说。“他们真正关心的是，我们专注于在他们所在的地方与他们会面，并为半夜惊醒他们的问题提供解决方案。”
拜登告诉州长，他和哈里斯是州长的合作伙伴。
“你知道那个小笑话:‘我们来自联邦政府，我们是来帮忙的。’但我们必须在联邦层面上齐心协力。你们是，女人也是，真的，你们一直在用一些帮助来处理这件事——同时很少帮助——而且已经很长时间了。在这场前所未有的危机中，你不得不做出艰难的抉择。"
他说新冠肺炎救济法案最终定稿“不太可能”解决“我强烈感觉到的两个有争议的问题——州和地方资金，以及另一个必须解决责任保险责任的问题。”
凯文·拉马克/美联社泳池
当选总统乔·拜登讲话，副总统当选人卡马拉·哈里斯在电视上观看
拜登说，他希望与州长们合作，完成“提供安全、公平和免费疫苗接种”的“艰巨”任务。
拜登补充说:“这将需要联邦政府，并与你们合作，以决定什么是最好的方法来做到这一点。”“这将要求我们向美国人民清楚地表明，通过这场大规模的公众教育运动，我们将会看到什么。”
“这条路会很长，会很艰难，但我想让你知道，这不是一次性的会议，”他说。
拜登告诉州长，他计划在他的就职典礼上要求人们在接下来的100天里戴口罩，他将在他有权力这样做的地方实施口罩禁令——与联邦工作人员和州际旅行。
在学校方面，当选总统表示，他希望学校能够在他的第一个100天结束时重新开放。
“我要问——我知道这对你们中的一些人来说会有争议——但我要问，我们能在一百天后开学，”他说。“这需要很多钱，但我们知道如何去做。”
主席对选举“违规”听证会承认拜登是PEOTUS
明尼苏达州参议员罗恩·约翰逊(Ron Johnson)周三上午明确表示，他接受拜登作为总统当选人，他不会挑战选举团下个月参议院的结果。
但这并没有阻止这位参议员继续他在参议院国土安全部主持下的最后一次听证会，旨在检查2020年选举中的“违规行为”。
格雷格·纳什/路透社泳池
参议院国土安全和政府事务委员会主席罗恩·约翰逊发言
约翰逊声称，民主党人谴责的听证会“不应该有争议”。民主党人指责听证会为特朗普毫无根据的选举欺诈指控提供了依据。然而，至少有一名共和党人，犹他州的参议员米特·罗姆尼拒绝参加听证会，他星期二告诉CNN，他认为这不会有成效。
特朗普在公开日程上安排了一个上午的内阁会议，但似乎至少观看了一些参议院听证会，并在推特上表达了他对证人克里斯·克雷布斯(Chris Krebs)的不满，克里斯·克雷布斯是国土安全部网络安全机构特朗普的前负责人上个月被解雇此前他公开指责特朗普毫无根据的选举舞弊指控。
在听证会上，克雷布斯坚持他先前的言论，即2020年的选举是美国历史上最安全的选举，并警告说，当民主受到怀疑时，它将受到长期损害。
格雷格·纳什/路透社泳池
网络安全和基础设施安全局前局长克里斯托弗·克雷布斯作证说
“我认为我们已经过了需要就这次选举的结果进行对话的阶段，”克雷布斯引用选举结果说。“对民主和这次选举结果的持续攻击只会破坏对选举的信心，最终会腐蚀支持选举的机构。展望未来，这将更加困难。”
拜登将在就职典礼上有少量的国情咨文规模的听众
负责在国会山组织就职典礼的国会就职典礼联合委员会计划今年大幅限制现场观众，原因是持续的冠状病毒大流行根据周三发给国会办公室的备忘录。
备忘录写道:“美中商贸联委会与多种公共卫生和医学专家以及总统就职委员会进行了磋商，认定这一全球性流行病和新冠肺炎病例的增加证明了一个艰难的决定，即将第59届就职典礼的现场观众限制在类似国情咨文的范围内。”。
在正常情况下，大约20万张仪式门票由国会办公室分配并分发给选民。
但下个月，计划在国会大厦西线举行的活动将只邀请国会议员，他们每个人都可以邀请一位客人——总共约1070人。
这一数字不包括政要和政府其他部门的与会者、额外的与会者或公众，他们传统上前往首都华盛顿购物中心更远的地方。
拜登的总统就职委员会已经劝阻支持者前往华盛顿特区参加就职典礼，邀请人们而是虚拟参与。国会官员还证实，他们计划对预计将于1月20日与拜登和哈里斯密切接触的每个人进行冠状病毒测试。
拜登提供了服用冠状病毒疫苗的最新情况，称救援会谈“令人鼓舞”
在拜登正式介绍皮特·布蒂吉格成为他的交通部长提名人的活动结束时，一名记者问拜登他计划什么时候接种冠状病毒疫苗，因为第一剂是分布在全国各地。
“我不想走在前列，但我想确保我们向美国人民证明，采取这种方式是安全的。他们正在制定那个计划。拜登说:“当我这样做的时候，我会公开这样做，这样你们就能真正见证我是如何做到的。”。
凯文·拉马克/路透社
当选总统乔·拜登在宣布印第安纳州前南本德市市长皮特·布蒂吉时说道
安东尼·福奇博士是美国传染病方面的顶级专家，也是拜登在新冠肺炎问题上的首席医疗顾问。他周二在美国广播公司的“早安美国”节目中表示，出于安全考虑，他建议拜登尽快接种疫苗。
周三，拜登还被问及来自国会山的消息，即议员们越来越接近达成刺激协议，并对这一努力表示称赞。
“刺激计划令人鼓舞。看起来他们非常非常近。看起来会有直接的现金支付。但这是首付，是从1月底到2月必须完成的重要首付，”拜登说。"我赞扬两党小组共同努力完成这项工作。"
Trump-Biden transition live updates: Biden meets with governors on COVID-19 response
President Donald Trump is slated to hand over control of the White House to President-elect Joe Biden in 35 days.
Biden, Harris discuss COVID-19 response on Zoom call with governors
On a Zoom call with 28 governors,President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris discussedCOVID-19and how the federal government and states can work together to distribute the vaccine, according to pool reports.
Harris began the call by saying that as vice president, her door would always be open to governors.
"When it comes to this pandemic, when it comes to economic recovery, when it comes to the issues that the American people care the most about, I think they really don't care whether we are Democrats or Republicans," she said."What they do care about is that we are focused on meeting them where they are and providing solutions to the issues that wake them up in the middle of the night."
Biden told governors that he and Harris were there to be partners with the governors.
"You know that little bad joke: 'We come from the federal government and we're here to help.' But we've got to get our act together federally," he said. "You guys are, and women are, really, you guys have been handling this with some help -- and very little help at the same time -- and for a long time now. And you've had to make the tough calls in what is an unprecedented crisis."
He said that theCOVID-19 relief billbeing finalized was not "likely" to deal with "the two contentious issues that I feel very strongly about -- state and local funding and the other having to deal with liability insurance liability."
Biden said he wants to work with governors on the "Herculean" task of "delivering safe, equitable and free vaccinations."
"It's going to take the federal government, and working with you guys, to decide what's the best way to do it," Biden added. "It's going to require us to be clear with the American people about what to expect through this massive public education campaign."
"This road is going to be long and it's going to be tough, but I want you to know, this is not a one-off meeting," he said.
Biden told governors he planned to ask people to wear masks for the next 100 days at his inauguration and that he would implement a mask mandate where he has the power to do so -- with federal workers and interstate travel.
On schools, the president-elect said he wanted them to be able to reopen at the end of his first 100 days.
"I'm going to ask -- and I know it's going to be controversial for some of you -- but I'm going to ask that we're going to be able to open schools at the end of a hundred days," he said. "That's going to take a lot of money, but we know how to do it."
Chairman over election 'irregularities' hearing acknowledges Biden as PEOTUS
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Minn., made clear Wednesday morning that he accepts Biden as the president-elect and that he will not challenge theElectoral Collegeresults in the Senate next month.
But that did not stop the senator from proceeding with his final hearing at the helm of the Senate Homeland Security aimed at examining "irregularities" in the 2020 election.
Johnson claimed the hearing, which Democrats have decried as lending credence to Trump's unfounded claims of election fraud, should "not be controversial". However, at least one Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, declined to participate in the hearing, telling CNN Tuesday he did not believe it would be productive.
Trump had a morning Cabinet meeting on his public schedule but appeared to watch at least some of the Senate hearing and tweeted his grievances about witness Chris Krebs, the former head of the Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity agency Trumpfired last monthafter he publicly rebuked Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud.
Krebs, in the hearing, stood by his previous remarks that the 2020 election was the most secure in American history and warned of the long-term term damage being inflicted on democracy when it's doubted.
"I think we are past the point where we need to be having a conversation about the outcome of this election," Krebs said, citing the electoral outcome. "Continued assaults on democracy and the outcome of this election only serves to undermine the confidence in the election, is ultimately corrosive to the institutions that support elections. Going forward it will be that much harder.”
Biden to have small, State of the Union-sized audience for inauguration
The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, tasked with organizing inauguration ceremonies on Capitol Hill, plans to dramatically limit the in-person audience this year due to theongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to a memo sent to congressional offices Wednesday.
"The JCCIC, in consultation with diversified public health and medical experts and the Presidential Inaugural Committee, has determined that this global pandemic and the rise in COVID-19 caseswarranted a difficult decision to limit attendance at the 59th Inaugural Ceremonies to a live audience that resembles a State of the Union," the memo reads.
Under normal circumstances, roughly 200,000 tickets for the ceremonies are allotted and distributed to constituents by congressional offices.
But next month, the event planned for the Capitol's West Front will only feature members of Congress, who are each permitted to invite a single guest -- for a total of about 1,070 people.
That figure doesn't include dignitaries and attendees from other branches of the government, additional participants or members of the public who traditionally travel to the nation's capital for a spot farther down the Washington Mall.
Biden's Presidential Inaugural Committee has already discouraged supporters from traveling to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration, inviting people toparticipate virtually instead. Capitol officials have also confirmed that they plan to implement coronavirus testing for everyone expected to come into close contact with Biden and Harris on Jan. 20.
Biden gives update on taking coronavirus vaccine, calls relief talks 'encouraging'
At the end of Biden's event formally introducing Pete Buttigieg as his nominee for transportation secretary, a reporter asked Biden when he plans to get the coronavirus vaccine as the first doses aredistributed across the country.
“I don't want to get ahead of the line, but I want to make sure that we demonstrate to the American people that it is safe to take. They're working on that plan right now. And when I do it, I'll do it publicly so you all can actually witness my getting it done,” Biden said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top expert on infectious diseases and Biden's chief medical adviser on COVID-19, told ABC's "Good Morning America" Tuesday he recommended Biden get the vaccine as soon as possible, citing security concerns.
Biden was also asked Wednesday about the news from Capitol Hill that lawmakers are inching closer and closer to a stimulus deal and offered compliments on the effort.
"The stimulus package is encouraging. It looks like they're very, very close. And it looks like there's going to be direct cash payments. But it's a down payment, an important down payment on what's going to have to be done beginning at the end of January into February,” Biden said. “I compliment the bipartisan group on working together to get it done."
