Biden begins transition plans as Trump refuses to concede

President-elect Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration for failing to ascertain the election so his transition could receive access to necessary information to be prepared to tackle the pandemic beginning on day one.  

During a roundtable with frontline workers, Biden cited as one example that his team does not know the depths of the personal protective equipment stockpiles and noted that the sharing of information is critical to vaccine implementation and distribution.

He added, “So I just want to tell you that that's the only slow down right now that we have.”

Remember: Trump has refused to concede the race and blocked his administration from taking any of the administrative steps typically taken in a transfer of power.

This includes allowing the General Services Administration to declare that there is a president-elect  — a move that triggers the transition process.

Watch the moment:

President-elect Joe Biden grew emotional, wiping away a tear after hearing an intensive care unit nurse describe her experience on the frontlines battling Covid-19.

Mary Turner, head of the Minnesota Nurses Association, recounted that she has held the hands of dying patients who cried out for family members they weren't able to see, and that she has taken care of co-workers who fought for their lives on a ventilator.

Turner said that the nurses in her unit have had to reuse N-95s many times to the point that "sometimes the masks literally fall off our faces."

After noting that she has yet to be tested for Covid-19, Biden spoke for the first time, interjecting, "You're kidding me." 

As she finished, Turner apologized for being emotional, to which Biden replied, "No, you got me emotional."

Watch Minnesota nurse Mary Turner describe her life as a frontline worker:

Officials on Joe Biden’s campaign expressed on a press call Wednesday afternoon that they believe the Georgia recount will finish today and that it will affirm Biden’s victory in the state. 

Moore noted that while there have been a handful of discrepancies in the totals, this is normal.

“These developments are entirely consistent with what you would see in any full hand recount,” he said. "Because human error happens, the administration of elections is complicated, but through diligence it’s uncovered and addressed. And that's exactly what has happened here."

He added, “We continue to agree with the secretary of state that there is no reason to believe that any widespread irregularity has occurred.” 

Marc Elias, an election expert, addressed the last pending lawsuit filed last week which called for a temporary restraining order, calling it “frivolous.” He added, like he said last week, that this was a bipartisan agreement that was struck between his clients. 

Asked if they’ve considered any other routes the Trump campaign might pursue following certification, Elias dismissed the possibility.

“There isn't any amount of recounting of these ballots that's going to change [that Joe Biden won.] All it's going to do is waste the taxpayers money of Georgia,” he said.  

President-elect Joe Biden tested negative for coronavirus today.

"President- elect Biden underwent PCR testing for COVID-19 today and COVID-19 was not detected," Biden's office said. 

Biden is currently participating in a virtual roundtable with frontline health care workers.

US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said staff will not work with President-elect Joe Biden's transition team until the General Services Administration makes a determination that Biden is the President-elect.

Azar said that many people involved in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Operation Warp Speed team are "career officials" and not impacted by a change in leadership.

The Biden transition team has yet to be briefed on the pandemic and has not been given full access to information from agencies on vaccine distribution plans.

President-elect Joe Biden is participating in a virtual roundtable with frontline health care workers in Wilmington, Delaware.

The event comes as the US nears 250,000 coronavirus deaths and cases continue to surge across the country.

At least 1,707 new Covid-19 deaths were reported Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. That's the highest daily death toll since May 14.

Biden's transition has moved to tackle the pandemic and announced a team of coronavirus advisers.

Another memory card with uncounted votes was discovered during Georgia’s statewide audit, giving a small boost to President-elect Joe Biden, a top election official told reporters on Wednesday. 

Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s voting systems implementation manager, said local officials in Douglas County, just west of Atlanta, “forgot to upload” results from one memory card on Election Day.  

The memory card had 156 votes for Biden, 128 votes for President Trump, and seven votes for Libertarian nominee Joe Jorgenson, Sterling said. That slight edge for Biden in this latest batch puts his statewide lead at 12,781 votes, with almost the entire audit completed, Sterling said.   

“We are down to the tens-of-thousands of ballots left to go,” Sterling said, adding that his still expects to meet the self-imposed deadline of midnight tonight. That would give state officials enough time and certify the official results of the election by Friday, as required by state law. 

The audit previously turned up three batches of uncounted votes, from Walton County, Fayette County and Floyd County, and those batches netted about 1,000 votes for Trump. Officials have stressed that these mishaps were caused by human error and are not indicative of vote-rigging or widespread fraud. 

Sterling continued to rebut Trump’s claims of fraud, as he has done nearly every day this week. 

“The President’s tweets basically targeting fraudulent votes is a little ironic because he has actually gained votes from this process. I hope people will go to trusted sources like the election county directors or the secretary of state site to get real information of how the system works and what we are doing to protect everybody’s vote in the state,” Sterling said during the news conference.   

Correction: An earlier version of this post stated that the Georgia audit previously turned up two batches of uncounted votes from Fayette County and Floyd County. The previous audit resulted in three batches of uncounted votes, including from Walton County. 

Joe Biden's presidential campaign is reacting to the Trump campaign seeking a partial recount in Wisconsin, arguing that it will not change the results and calling Biden's victory "clear and resounding."

"A cherry-picked and selective recounting of Milwaukee and Dane County will not change these results. Election officials worked extremely hard under unprecedented circumstances to ensure all votes were counted quickly and accurately, and the recount demanded and paid for by the Trump campaign will once again confirm Joe Biden’s victory," he added.

Earlier: A Trump campaign official told CNN they will seek a limited recount of some Wisconsin counties, but the official declined to identify the counties. The campaign needs to officially request the recount, and pay an upfront fee, by 5 p.m. CT.

Wisconsin election officials confirmed on Wednesday that they received a partial payment of $3 million from the Trump campaign. These officials said last week that the price tag for a statewide recount would be approximately $7.9 million. 

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham acknowledged on Wednesday he is not seeking an investigation into states that President Trump won, telling CNN that that "they are not in question" so it isn't an issue for him.

"We're looking at states where there's a contest," Graham said. "I'm not looking at states that he lost. I'm looking at states where there's a challenge." 

Graham has previously said he's reviewed the voting practices of Georgia, Arizona and Nevada to learn about whether any changes needed to be made to verify ballots sent by mail. He continued to defend his effort on Wednesday.

Graham also told reporters this when asked about Trump's lie that he won Michigan.

Asked if he's okay with counties refusing to certify the election results, Graham said: "If they had a reason not to certify it, I'd be okay with it, but apparently they did."