Biden's transition formally begins

President-elect Joe Biden is introducing his Cabinet nominees and appointees to key national security and foreign policy posts, including the first woman to lead the US intelligence community and first Latino to helm the Department of Homeland Security.

The six foreign policy and national security nominees and appointees, which were unveiled yesterday, are on stage with him in Wilmington, Delaware.

"The team meets this moment, this team behind me. They embody my core beliefs that America is strongest when it works with its allies," Biden continued. "Collectively this team has secured some of the most defining national security and diplomatic achievements in recent memory."

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris also praised the individuals, saying they are the leaders the country needs "to meet the challenges of this moment."

"I have always believed in the nobility of public service, and these Americans embody it," Kamala Harris said. "These women and men are patriots and public servants to their core. And they are leaders, the leaders we need to meet the challenges of this moment. And those that lie ahead."

The nominees and appointees include:

Watch President-elect Joe Biden's remarks:

President Trump, joined by Vice President Mike Pence, abruptly came into the White House briefing room Tuesday for remarks scheduled minutes before on the stock market that clocked in just over one minute.

The Dow hit 30,000 for the first time earlier Tuesday as uncertainty about the outcome of the presidential election lifted and new hopes that a Covid-19 vaccine could soon be available.

The President made brief remarks and did not take any questions. 

Here's what the President said:

Nevada Secretary of State Barbara K. Cegavske officially certified the state's 2020 general election results before the state's Supreme Court Tuesday.

Cevaske, a Republican, highlighted several state races and their results, but did not verbally acknowledge the winner of the presidential race, President-elect Joe Biden.

The Nevada Supreme Court signed the canvassing for each county prior to official certification of the results.

Biden won the state by more than 33,000 votes, according to the latest numbers on the Secretary of State’s website.

Here's a breakdown of the general election vote count:

US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said his department has been in communication with President-elect Joe Biden's transition team, following the General Services Administration's acknowledgement of Biden's win Monday night.

"We are immediately getting them all of the pre-prepared transition briefing materials. We will ensure coordinated briefings with them to ensure they're getting whatever information that they feel they need that's consistent with statute and past practice," Azar said. 

"Transition planning and execution will be professional, cooperative and collaborative," he added.

WATCH:

Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist who was connected to efforts to spread conspiracy theories about Joe Biden has been put in charge of the Pentagon transition effort with the incoming Biden-Harris administration, according to two US defense officials.  

Patel is the chief of staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller.  While its not unusual for a chief of staff to take a leading role in a transition effort, officials tell CNN that Patel is likely to come under scrutiny by many inside the Pentagon who are watching to see how cooperative he may be with the Biden team in providing critical information. 

Patel just recently came to the Pentagon after President Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper and is viewed as an ardent Trump loyalist who will continue to do whatever he can to further the President’s political agenda in the time remaining in office.

The House impeachment inquiry uncovered evidence that Patel, who was then an aid to Rep. Devin Nunes was connected to the diplomatic back channel led by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, and the efforts to spread conspiracy theories about Joe Biden and coerce Ukraine into announcing an investigation of the former vice president.

Thomas Muir, the director of Washington Headquarters Services is providing the major Department of Defense support to the transition while Patel heads the overall effort another defense official said.Muir is expected to facilitate office space, communications and access to information. 

A senior defense official said that prior to Patel overseeing the transition process, his predecessor Jen Stewart who was chief of staff to Esper was leading the process.

Since coming to the Pentagon, Patel has overseen decisions to withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan

The Pentagon said Monday night that the Biden-Harris team has been in touch with the Department of Defense team.

Barbara Starr reports:

As the nation continues to grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic, Health and Human Services held a key meeting this morning following the ascertainment declaration from the General Services Administration.

HHS also says it will have a cooperative a professional transition. It also notes that the career people involved with the pandemic response and vaccine distribution will be the same after inauguration day.

Remember: The delay in ascertainment meant that President-elect Joe Biden's team was locked out from government data and could not make contact with federal agencies, nor could it spend $6.3 million in government funding now available for the transition.

A Biden official said the most urgent need was for the transition to be given access to Covid-19 data and the vaccine distribution plans.

The State Department transition team was contacted by President-elect Joe Biden’s State Department agency review team last night after the General Services Administration ascertained Biden’s victory, according to a senior State Department official with knowledge of the transition.

The outreach came from Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who is the team lead and Biden’s pick for Ambassador to the UN, the official said.

Today there will be a virtual meeting with the State Department transition team, led by Ambassador Dan Smith, and the Biden transition team, the official said. This will be their first official meeting and comes more than two weeks after Biden gave a victory speech and was declared the winner of the election.

The meeting will begin to dig into logistical and substantive details, such as the pace of the process over the next few weeks and how much of the process will be done in person and how much will be done virtually, the official said.

While there is a scurry of activity in the transition offices at the State Department this morning, none of the Biden State Department team members have yet visited the offices, the official said.

Today Thomas-Greenfield is with Biden in Wilmington, Delaware, as he formally unveils a slew of high-profile Cabinet appointments, including his plan to send her to represent the US at the UN.

Traditionally the Cabinet picks don’t happen until after the transition has been in motion for at least a few weeks.

With the key Cabinet picks for State already done – with Tony Blinken chosen to be Biden’s Secretary of State – the transition process will operate a bit more quickly as the career transition team at State knows who they are working with and can prepare materials that they need with their input, the official said.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf just announced that the Keystone state has certified its 2020 general election results. 

In a twitter post Tuesday morning, Wolf confirmed he'd signed the certificate for Ascertainment that formally acknowledges the state's recognition of Biden winning the election.  

The certification comes just one day after all of Pennsylvania's 67 counties, under law, had to receive precinct results and certify them to the Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar by the third Monday after the election. 

This will now officially award the state’s 20 electoral votes to President-elect Joe Biden. 

Wolf went onto thank election officials for their work. 

"Again, I want to thank the election officials who have administered a fair and free election during an incredibly challenging time in our commonwealth and country's history. Our election workers have been under constant attack and they have performed admirably and honorably," Wolf said in a news release. 

President Trump's campaign is funneling an increasingly large share of its "Election Defense Fund" fundraising to Trump's political action committee, as his opportunities to legally challenge the election results fade. 

Even as fundraising emails tell supporters their donations will help "protect the integrity of the election," 75% of donations to the fund are now deposited into the coffers of Trump's fledgling leadership PAC, Save America.

That's up from the 60% share the PAC was receiving last week.

The campaign's "Recount Account" — arguably the account supporters believe they are donating to – only gets a piece of donations above $5,000.

The remaining quarter of any donation goes to the Republican National Committee's general fund, with donations over $35,500 steered to the RNC's legal fund.

The Trump campaign did not respond to CNN's requests for comment.