Bet_Noire/iStockBy LIBBY CATHEY, ABC News

(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump is slated to hand over control of the White House to President-elect Joe Biden in 44 days.

Here is how the transition is unfolding. All times Eastern.

Dec 07, 8:20 pm

Retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin is Biden's pick for defense secretary: Sources

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to name retired four-star Army Gen. Lloyd Austin as his choice to lead the Defense Department, four sources familiar with Biden's plans told ABC News.

If confirmed, Austin would be the first Black defense secretary in American history.

Austin, the former commander of U.S. Central Command -- with jurisdiction over military activities in the Middle East -- retired in 2016 after more than 40 years of military service, including a stint leading U.S. forces in Iraq and the campaign against the Islamic State.

Austin will need a waiver from Congress to lead the Pentagon, given that he is less than seven years from active duty. Congress granted retired Marine Corps Gen. Jim Mattis the same waiver in 2017 to allow him to serve as President Donald Trump's first defense secretary.

-ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz, Benjamin Siegel, Katherine Faulders, John Santucci and Luis Martinez

Dec 07, 6:22 pm

Biden expected to announce members of his economic, domestic Cabinet this week

Biden will announce other members of his economic and domestic Cabinet this week, in addition to his pick for defense secretary, according to a statement from the office of the president-elect.

"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 reads.

While Biden was asked about his attorney general pick earlier Monday -- along with secretary of defense -- the campaign notably does not specify that that position will be rolled out this week in the new statement.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle

Dec 07, 4:44 pm

Biden says he’ll announce his pick to lead Pentagon on Friday

Biden confirmed more Cabinet picks are expected to come this week, saying he would announce his Defense Secretary on Friday.

While Biden rolled out a portion of his national security team as part of his first Cabinet announcement, there has been continued speculation over his choice to lead the Justice and Defense Departments. Biden in recent days has been urged to appoint a person of color, particularly a Black person at the Department of Defense and as the Attorney General.

The speculation comes ahead of Biden meeting with the NAACP on Tuesday.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle

Dec 07, 4:17 pm

Biden appears without larger walking boot, meets with transition advisers

Biden has arrived at The Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware, his de facto transition headquarters ahead of his inauguration in 44 days again without a medical accessory he's donned for the larger part of the last week.

Although Biden's doctor said last Sunday he would likely be wearing a walking boot for "several weeks" after he sustained hairline fractures in his right foot, Biden was not wearing the boot when he walked into the theater Monday afternoon. While attending a Saturday Mass in Wilmington, he was also spotted without what Biden has referred to as "the big boot.”

Biden has said his foot feels “good” despite sustaining the fractures just over a week ago, and addressed the boot issue during an interview with CNN Thursday, noting that the larger cast is a little clumsy and while he wears it "most of the time," he’s been given a smaller option for going out in public.

Biden will receive the President’s Daily Brief and meet with transition advisers on Monday, according to his public schedule, and pre-tape transition production elements at The Queen, his team said.

It comes ahead of Biden introducing his top health care picks to the public on Tuesday including California Attorney General Xavier Berecca to lead the Health and Human Services Department and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as Biden's chief medical adviser to lead the country through the worsening COVID-19 pandemic.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle

Dec 07, 2:34 pm

Georgia recertifies election results, reaffirming Biden's victory

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has recertified the results of the 2020 presidential election following a second audit that entailed counties counting by hand every one of the approximately 5 million ballots cast in the race.

The Trump campaign requested a recount after votes were first certified for Biden on Nov. 20, but the machine recount, as officials said to expect, reaffirmed that Biden won Georgia's 16 electoral votes -- the first Democratic presidential victory in the state since 1992.

In a press release announcing the recertification, Raffensperger also gave a statement about the dismissal of former Trump legal team lawyer Sidney Powell's "Kraken" lawsuit by a Georgia court earlier in the day.

“Today is an important day for election integrity in Georgia and across the country,” Raffensperger said. “The claims in the Kraken lawsuit prove to be as mythological as the creature for which they’re named. Georgians can now move forward knowing that their votes, and only their legal votes, were counted accurately, fairly, and reliably.”

-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan


Dec 07, 12:58 pm
Georgia court rejects Trump campaign lawsuit over self-inflicted delays

A Trump campaign lawsuit was rejected by a Georgia state court Monday because the Trump legal team failed to pay the filing fee and neglected to fill out the proper forms. It's the latest in a string of blunders and gaffes that are adding self-inflicted delays to their time-sensitive legal challenges.
 
Trump filed the lawsuit in Georgia Friday afternoon officially contesting the results of the election and requesting a do-over -- another in a series of long-shot legal bids that have so far met with stiff resistance from the state's Republican election officials. Pro-Trump legal efforts across the country have ended in at least 38 defeats to date, with only a single court victory -- in a case in Pennsylvania that was ultimately not consequential.

The latest rejection comes just after Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he would recertify the state’s election results, affirming Biden’s victory after a third count of presidential votes, sometime Monday.
 
-ABC News’ Matthew Mosk and Olivia Rubin

Dec 07, 11:58 am
Georgia secretary of state to recertify Biden's win Monday

Up against Tuesday's "safe harbor" deadline, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that he will recertify that Biden won Georgia's election sometime Monday following the state's third recount of the presidential vote there which has Biden ahead by nearly 12,000 votes.

"It's been a long 34 days since the election on Nov. 3. We have now counted legally cast ballots, three times, and the results remain unchanged," Raffensperger told reporters.

As he did in his WSJ op-ed Monday morning, the secretary equated how former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams acted after her 2018 loss and Trump's behavior in 2020.

"Whether it's the president of the United States or a failed gubernatorial candidate ... disinformation regarding election administration should be condemned and rejected," he said. "All this talk of a stolen election, whether it's Stacey Abrams, or the president of the United States is hurting our state."

Raffensperger also said that "the focus on Nov. 3 is drawing energy away from" the state's goals of job growth, efficient COVID-19 vaccine distribution and "getting back to normal."

"I know there are people that are convinced the election was fraught with problems, but the evidence -- the actual evidence, the facts -- tell us a different story," he said.

Gabriel Sterling, the voting system implementation manager in Raffensperger's office, came to the podium afterward to fact check some of the misinformation that the president has helped spread. In one example, he directly called out the president's legal team for how they've tried to "mislead" people about a video from counting occurring in State Farm Arena in Fulton County that Trump played at his rally in Valdosta on Saturday night.

"What's really frustrating is the president's attorneys had this same videotape. They saw the exact same things the rest of us could see, and they chose to mislead state senators and the public about what was on that video," he said, debunking the notion that there were "magic ballots" that showed up in the state's largest county.

"They knew it was untrue and they continue to do things like this," Sterling said. "We continue to see people who are put in positions of responsibility, sending out this disinformation and undermining the electoral system," he added later.Minutes after Raffensperger told reporters he would receritfy the vote Monday, Trump continued his attacks on election officials in the state on Twitter, targeting GOP Gov. Brian Kemp for signature verification saying he'd have an "easy win" were it conducted -- but signature verification was already done twice for absentee ballots in the state, and the vote was recounted three times affirming Biden's win.

-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan

Dec 07, 11:15 am
Overview: Ga. officials reject Trump's attempt to overturn election, Biden presses forward without seeing 'detailed' vaccine plan

With just hours to go until Tuesday's "safe harbor" federal law-mandated deadline for states to certify their election results and next Monday's Electoral College voting coming up, time is running out for Trump to find a way to overturn the results of the presidential election as he’s set out to do.

The president held a rally in Georgia -- his first since losing the election -- to campaign for the upcoming Senate runoffs there, races which will determine whether the GOP maintains control, but instead he spent most of his 101 minutes on stage pushing a whirlwind of unsubstantiated claims that the election was stolen.

Trump directly called on GOP Gov. Brian Kemp to "immediately ask for a special session of the legislature" -- which could theoretically set up the process of allowing lawmakers to appoint new electors who would support Trump over Biden despite Biden winning by nearly 12,000 votes in the state.

But Georgia officials have rejected Trump's call.

Kemp, joined by GOP Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, said in a statement late Sunday it would be unconstitutional for the legislature to "retroactively change" the process for choosing presidential electors, saying "doing this in order to select a separate slate of presidential electors is not an option that is allowed under state or federal law."

While Kemp and Duncan, along with GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and officials in his office, have said the only option in disputing the results is through the courts, pro-Trump efforts have ended in at least 38 defeats to date, with only a single court victory -- in a case in Pennsylvania that was ultimately not consequential.

It all comes as the president’s personal attorney tasked with leading his efforts to overturn the election in court, Rudy Giuliani, who has been traveling the country as part of the president's ongoing efforts to dispute election results, remains hospitalized with COVID-19 at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington since Sunday. The Arizona legislature has closed for the week "out of an abundance of caution" after Giuliani met with roughly a dozen GOP lawmakers.

As deadlines loom, Trump on Monday presents the presidential Medal of Freedom to wrestling legend Dan Gable at noon and meets with Vice President Mike Pence behind closed doors.

And while Trump administration officials vow that with vaccine on the horizon, life will soon return to normal, the Biden team is sounding alarms on its distribution, saying they still don’t have access to the plan to roll it out.

"We have yet to see any kind of detailed plan," Dr. Celine Gounder, an expert on Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board, told CBS This Morning Monday after Biden said the same last week.

Pressing forward with the transition despite Trump's roadblocks, Biden and Vice President-elect Harris will receive the President’s Daily Brief and meet with transition advisors on Monday ahead of personally debuting their new health picks, who will inherit leading the country through the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Dec 07, 9:30 am
Biden names 5 inaugural committee co-chairs

The Biden team has announced co-chairs for the Presidential Inaugural Committee with Democratic Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, whose endorsement helped put Biden on a path to victory, at the helm to guide the larger committee as they prepare for the event in 44 days.

"This inauguration will show the country and the world something I have always known: we know Joe, and Joe knows us," Clyburn said in a statement through the Biden transition team.

Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will help lead Biden’s team as co-chairs, along with Clyburn who will serve as chair.

“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,” Biden said in a statement Monday morning.

Dec 07, 9:25 am
Biden unveils health picks including HHS secretary

President-elect Joe Biden unveiled his health team early Monday morning, a slate of seven experts and officials that will lead his administration's response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

California Attorney General and former Rep. Xavier Beccera is nominated as Secretary of Health and Human Services. If confirmed, he would be the first Latino to lead the department.

Vivek Muthy has been nominated to be U.S. Surgeon General, a role he served in during the Obama administration.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, a leading expert on virus testing, prevention, and treatment, is nominated to serve as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, one of the country’s foremost experts on health care disparities, will serve as the COVID-19 equity task force chair.

As Biden said last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci will stay on in his current role as as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and will take on the elevated role of Biden's chief medical adviser on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jeff Zients will serve as coordinator of the COVID-19 response and counselor to the president, and Natalie Quillian will serve as deputy coordinator of the COVID-19 Response.

“This trusted and accomplished team of leaders will bring the highest level of integrity, scientific rigor, and crisis-management experience to one of the toughest challenges America has ever faced — getting the pandemic under control so that the American people can get back to work, back to their lives, and back to their loved ones," Biden said in a statement announcing the picks.

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