Biden begins transition plans as Trump refuses to concede

The White House’s Office and Management and Budget is continuing to advise agencies to prepare the budget proposal as if nothing is changing, according to a person familiar with the plans.

The person said the team is “going forward assuming a win” when it comes to budget preparation, despite the major networks calling the race for President-elect Joe Biden.

Trump has refused to admit defeat even though his claims contesting the election results haven't held up in court.

Another person says while there hasn't been a formal memo spelling this out, the message to agencies is to proceed as normal.

The President’s budget, which normally comes out in February, is more of a political document than a policy proposal, since Congress determines how money is spent.

It amounts to a yearly signal of the White House's priorities in the coming months.

The Biden- Harris transition team has released their full list of the members of their agency review teams — the teams tasked with reviewing operations at the federal agencies across the government. They reiterated that their transition is "continuing full steam ahead." 

"The agency review process will help lay the foundation for meeting these challenges on Day One,” he continued.

Read more here.

President-elect Joe Biden said he does "not see a need for legal action" to force the beginning of the transition process and plans to continue to move ahead with his transition plans despite President Trump not yet conceding.

Biden laid out how he plans to proceed, regardless of how Trump responds. The President-elect noted that there is "one president at a time" and Trump will "be president until Jan. 20."

"We're just going to proceed the way we have. We're gonna do exactly what we'd be doing if he had conceded, and said, 'we've won,' which we have, and so there's nothing really changing," Biden said.

Remember: Major new organizations, including CNN, projected Biden will win the presidential election on Saturday. President Trump has launched a series of legal challenges to the results and has not yet conceded to Biden — yet concession is a custom, not something required under the law.

There has been no evidence of widespread voting fraud despite Trump's claims.

Trump's administration is also so far refusing to sign off on a key document needed to formally begin the transition process. The Trump-appointed General Services Administration administrator is the person tasked with officially affirming Biden has won the election on behalf of the Trump administration. The official needs to sign a letter to release funds to the Biden transition team through a process called ascertainment.

This would mark the first formal acknowledgment from the Trump administration that Biden has in fact won the election, but it would also unlock access to national security tools to streamline background checks and additional funds to pay for training and incoming staff.

With reporting from CNN's Betsy Klein.

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Asked about President Trump's refusal to concede the election, President-elect Joe Biden said, "I just think it's an embarrassment, quite frankly." 

Biden said the he believes in the end, there will be a transition of power.

In a follow-up question, Biden was asked about Republicans who won't acknowledge that he won.

He responded, "They will. They will." 

Watch President-elect Joe Biden:

Mitch McConnell since the election but expects to do so in the "not too distant in the future."

Asked about comments made by McConnell earlier today suggesting he may not recognize the outcome of this election until the electoral college meets next month, Biden responded that he felt President Trump is intimidating members of his party. 

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President-elect Joe Biden dismissed Trump's refusal "to acknowledge we won," saying Trump's lack of concession would not affect his transition plans.

Biden said he's beginning to review who might serve in his cabinet and putting together the rest of his administration.

"And so I'm confident that the fact that they're not willing to acknowledge we won at this point is not of much consequence in our planning and what we're able to do between now and Jan. 20," Biden said.

While CNN and other networks on Saturday projected Biden would win the presidency, Trump has vowed to challenge 2020 election results and has yet to publicly concede.

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President-elect Joe Biden called the case heard this morning by the Supreme Court — which could overturn Obamacare — "the latest attempt by far right ideologues" to overturn the Affordable Care Act.

Biden said, "The goal of the outgoing administration is clear" — that "the entire ACA thus must fall." 

He continued: "Now I'm not naive about the fact that health care is an issue that has divided Americans in the past, but the truth is the American people are more united on this issue today than they are divided."

Watch President-elect Joe Biden's remarks:

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris used a portion of her remarks on the Affordable Care Act to reiterate that Joe Biden "won the election decisively" and that the Biden-Harris administration will not allow that the health care law be overturned.

Harris added that Biden "won the election decisively, with more votes than have ever been cast in American history."

"It amounts to 75 million voices and counting calling on the Supreme Court to see this case for what it is. A blatant attempt to overturn the will of the people. And the President-Elect and I cannot let that happen," Harris added.

Remember: President Trump has not yet conceded to Biden despite major news organizations, including CNN, projecting Biden will win the presidential election.

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Ve President-elect Kamala Harris is delivering remarks now from Wilmington, Delaware, on the Affordable Care Act.

"This is all happening when our country is suffering through a pandemic that has claimed more than 238,000 lives, and we all know that if the Affordable Care Act is struck down communities of color would be hit particularly hard," Harris continued.

President-elect Joe Biden, who campaigned on a promise to keep and build on Obamacare, is expected to speak soon as well.

The speech comes the day Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments in the case that seeks to overturn the landmark health reform law.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested Tuesday that it wasn't the Supreme Court's role to invalidate the entire sprawling, 900-page Affordable Care Act, even if one or more provisions are deemed unconstitutional, signaling the key parts of Obamacare will survive the latest court challenge.

The Trump administration and several Republican-led states are asking the court to strike down the law, 10 years after it was passed, potentially impacting millions of Americans. 

Read more about the oral arguments today in the Supreme Court here.

Hear Vice President-elect Kamala Harris: