Biden's transition moves ahead

President-elect Joe Biden’s team spoke to a group representing state immunization program managers on Tuesday, according to Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers.

Hannan told CNN the association shared initial state plans for vaccine distribution with Biden’s team, all of which are all publicly available.

“It’s a good sign that they want to be as educated as possible,” said Hannan.

The association is a nonprofit group representing state and territorial immunization managers who work to improve immunization coverage in the US. 

Hannan said state immunization program managers have been convening regularly to discuss plans and challenges related to vaccine distribution, including cold chain and transportation requirements.

President Trump has invited Republican lawmakers from today's event in Pennsylvania to the White House tonight.

He's expected to meet with them in the West Wing shortly, two sources said, though it's not clear if press will be allowed in.

Trump has not made any public appearances today, but he called into the meeting earlier via his legal adviser's speakerphone after scrapping a planned trip. He wrongly claimed Democrats "lost" an election they won. 

Future first lady Jill Biden stopped by a food bank in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, today ahead of Thanksgiving, her spokesperson Michael LaRosa confirmed.

She did not have press traveling with her, but Biden was spotted dropping off bags of goods and posing for photos at the Community Resource Center in Rehoboth Beach earlier today.

Among President-elect Joe Biden’s most urgent and overwhelming priorities when he is first sworn into office will be containing the Covid-19 pandemic, the economic recovery and tackling racial inequality, Biden transition officials said. 

The transition team, as CNN previously reported, has been working on for months — among other things — thinking through executive actions Biden may take in his first days in office. At this point, no final decisions have been made on exactly which executive actions he’ll take, but an official said Biden will consider using the many “levers at his disposal” in the same ways that his past predecessors did to deal with the multiple national crises.

As for legislative priorities, Biden himself has said as recently as this week that he wants to send an immigration bill to the Senate within his first 100 days in office. He also said he would want to roll back President Trump’s executive orders that he sees as damaging for the climate.

A main focus for the Biden-Harris transition right now is continuing to build out “the right team of experts,” the official said, to help Biden’s future administration. 

President Trump has tweeted that he has “granted a Full Pardon” to former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

"It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon. Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!" Trump tweeted.

The Department of Justice was not consulted on the pardon but was given a heads-up on Wednesday, according to a Department of Justice official.  

“We would have preferred to see if Judge Sullivan would act and for the matter to be resolved in court. We were confident in the likelihood of our success in the case,” the official said. “That being said, this is obviously an appropriate use of the President’s pardon power.”

Flynn's tenure at the White House lasted just a few weeks — he resigned early 2017 after getting caught in a public lie about his Russian contacts.

He pleaded guilty in late 2017 to lying to the FBI about those contacts, but later disavowed his plea and tried to get the case thrown out. In a shocking twist this spring, the Justice Department abandoned the case, which is still tied up in legal limbo.

Throughout the saga, Flynn has narrowly avoided being sentenced.

He's also become an emblem of Trump's persistent efforts to undermine the Russia investigation and a conduit for testing the separation of powers between judges and prosecutors. 

Rep. Adam Schiff, manager of the House impeachment investigation into Trump and chairman of the House Intel Committee, reacted to Trump’s pardon of Flynn this afternoon.

Schiff said in a statement, “There is no doubt that a president has broad power to confer pardons, but when they are deployed to insulate himself, his family, and his associates from criminal investigation, it is a corruption of the Framer’s intent.”

Some background: To date, Trump's record on presidential pardons has been marked by personal connections, showmanship and an aversion to going through official government channels.

Beneficiaries have won clemency by getting their requests to Trump through friends, Fox News personalities or Hollywood celebrities who talk to the President. That unusual pipeline has worked for people like Joe Arpaio, a former Arizona sheriff, Dinesh D'Souza, right-wing commentator, and Michael Milken, a financier convicted of securities fraud.

CNN's Christina Carrega contributed to this report.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins has more:

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris told reporters she has “not yet” spoken to current Vice President Mike Pence, while standing alongside husband Doug Emhoff as the pair made a surprise stop by DC Central Kitchen to thank CEO Mike Curtin, Chef and philanthropist José Andrés and the rest of their staff for their work combatting hunger.

Harris also said she couldn’t “speak directly” to whether she has spoken to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell or other Republicans on Capitol Hill. Harris, who once inaugurated will become the president of the Senate and presides over daily proceedings, was seen last week greeting GOP members with fist-bumps and laughs on the Senate floor.

“I can't speak directly to that, but I will tell you that it has been the priority for the President-elect and me from the beginning that we intend to and will work across the aisle to deal with these most impactful issues that are affecting people regardless of who they voted for in the election,” Harris told reporters. 

Before the quick Q&A, Harris thanked the group, who combat hunger and poverty through job training and creation, according to the organizations website. Harris recited familiar statistics of the child poverty rate and the difference between charity and duty, and spent a few minutes talking directly to Andrés about her plans to celebrate the holiday this year without her larger family.

For his part, Emhoff talked about seeing the issue of food insecurity first hand during his travels for the general campaign and plans to incorporate that into his portfolio.

“I traveled the country and food insecurity was a big issue that I saw when I traveled all over,” he said. “As I’m figuring out the things I’ll be passionate about, this is definitely one of them.”

A department notice went out at the State Department Wednesday morning about the transition. 

“Following the November 3 election, representatives of President Elect Biden's transition team have arrived at the Department of State to support preparations for the transition,” the notice said, the contents of which were shared with CNN.

It said that a dedicated Executive Secretariat team under the guidance of Amb. Daniel Smith, a career foreign service officer who is currently the director of the Foreign Service Institute, “will support the transition team to ensure they receive information and logistical support, including with security clearances, legal issues, human resources, and information management.”

The staff of the Executive Secretariat – known as the Line – will coordinate State Department communications, meetings, and conversations with the transition team, according to the notice.

“This will ensure that the department and members of the transition team comply with applicable law and policies, including security and non-disclosure requirements, and that requests for information are assigned to the appropriate department offices,” it said.

Some context: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has yet to publicly acknowledge Joe Biden as President-elect. With regard to the transition, he said on Fox News Tuesday night that the department will “do everything that’s required by law.”

In a message to State Department employees Tuesday, Pompeo commemorated both Election Day and Veterans Day, but did not speak about the outcome of the election.

359. That’s the number of fundraising emails President Trump’s political operation has sent to supporters since 11 p.m. ET on election night. And they have not stopped.

On Wednesday morning — two days after the General Services Administration acknowledged Joe Biden’s win and set in motion the transition to a new administration — the Trump camp continued to send fundraising emails, claiming “this election is not over.”

Some missives, labeled “Rudy Giuliani Alerts,” touted false claims of voter fraud. “Make no mistake about it: Democrats are attempting to STEAL this Election and the White House,” one read.

Another sent early Wednesday morning asks supporters to contribute “IMMEDIATELY to the Georgia Recount Fund and DEMAND an HONEST recount.”

Trump requested another recount of the roughly 5 million ballots cast in Georgia, after a hand recount confirmed Biden as the winner. But Georgia taxpayers – rather than the Trump campaign – will foot the bill for the machine recount now under way.

The Trump campaign has not responded to requests for comment.

As CNN has previously reported, the biggest beneficiary of Trump’s fundraising is a leadership PAC he established earlier this month that will allow him to fund his post-White House political ventures and maintain his influence in the Republican Party. Seventy-five percent of donations go first to his new political vehicle, Save America. His campaign’s recount account only receives a piece of donations that top $5,000.

One fundraising email Wednesday from the President’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump offered a slight shift in messaging. It claims Biden is intent on implementing a “RADICAL agenda.”

“We cannot sit by and let them undo all that we have achieved these past four years - it’s imperative that we keep fighting to SAVE AMERICA,” it added, mirroring the name of Trump’s fledgling political action committee.

Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador again declined to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday for winning the US presidential election. 

López Obrador restated his intention to wait until the electoral process is finished to announce his congratulations, adding that he has nothing against any candidate or party. 

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and Russian president Vladimir Putin join López Obrador in waiting or declining to acknowledge Biden as the new president-elect.

The Kremlin said on Monday it's still too early to acknowledge a winner, and they will accept results after all lawsuits are completed. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message on Wednesday, more than two weeks after US media called the race for the Democratic candidate.