10 things you need to know today: December 15, 2020

1. Electoral College makes Biden's election win official

The Electoral College on Monday confirmed President-elect Joe Biden's victory over President Trump in the November election. Biden received the electoral votes of the battleground states where Trump tried to overturn the results. That gave him 306 electoral votes, the same number Trump received in 2016 and comfortably above the 270 needed to win. "In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed," Biden said. "We the people voted. Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact. And so, now it is time to turn the page. To unite. To heal." Congress is scheduled to meet on Jan. 6 to count the votes. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will then be sworn into office on Jan. 20.

NPR USA Today

2. Barr submits resignation a month before Trump leaves office

Attorney General William Barr has resigned and will leave the job before Christmas, a month before President Trump's term ends. Barr's departure, which Trump announced via Twitter, came as the Electoral College on Monday formalized President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the November election. Speculation that Barr would leave the administration surged in recent days after he said in early December that the Justice Department had not found evidence of enough vote fraud to overturn Biden's victory. The comments sparked criticism from Trump, who has claimed without proof that the election was "rigged" against him, and that he would have won handily had it not been for widespread vote fraud. Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani pushed back against Barr's statement, saying there hadn't been "any semblance of a Department of Justice investigation" of fraud.

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3. Coronavirus death toll surpasses 300,000 as vaccinations begin

U.S. public health officials on Monday administered the country's first coronavirus vaccinations, as Pfizer continued to deliver the first batch of doses around the country. The first vaccinations outside of clinical trials marked a long-awaited milestone in the fight against the pandemic, although it came on the day that the U.S. death toll surpassed 300,000. "I believe this is the weapon that will end the war," said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, where nurse Sandra Lindsay received the first COVID-19 vaccination. "I trust science," Lindsay said. Connecticut, Iowa, and Washington were among the other states that had their first vaccinations. "This week, everyone's work starts to pay off," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said.

The Hill

4. Congress nears spending deal as deadline looms

Congressional negotiators made progress toward a $1.4 trillion spending bill that will prevent the government from shutting down on Friday. Lingering sticking points include funding for President Trump's border wall. Also on Monday, a group of bipartisan senators unveiled a new coronavirus stimulus proposal. It consists of two bills: a $748 billion package containing universally popular measures such as renewed unemployment benefits, and a $160 billion bill containing a controversial "liability shield" protecting businesses from coronavirus-related lawsuits. Neither proposal contains another round of stimulus checks. Congress is planning to lump the relief bill into the larger omnibus funding bill.

Politico The Washington Post

5. D.C. leaders blame Proud Boys for protest violence

Washington, D.C., officials on Monday denounced violence that occurred during a weekend demonstration by people who refuse to accept President-elect Joe Biden's election victory. Police said members of the self-described "western chauvinist" Proud Boys sparked clashes with counterprotesters. "What should have been a beautiful weekend," D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said, "was ruined by white supremacists who came to our city seeking violence." Police said four Black churches had been vandalized, up from the initial report of two. Video from one incident showed white men burning a Black Lives Matter banner torn from one of the churches. "These Proud Boys are avowed white nationalists and have been called to stand up against a fair and legal election," Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said.

The Washington Post

6. Wisconsin Supreme Court rejects Trump election challenge

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday ruled 4-3 against President Trump's attempt to disqualify 221,000 ballots in the state, ending Trump's last significant election lawsuit in the U.S. Following President-elect Joe Biden's win in the 2020 election, Trump and his supporters have launched dozens of lawsuits across the U.S. attempting to get ballots thrown out and flip the election for Trump. Trump has been almost unilaterally unsuccessful, including in his attempt to throw out ballots in bluer areas of Wisconsin because of alleged fraud; The court ruled that Trump should have raised his voting policy concerns before the election, although the three dissenting conservatives said the court should have ruled on the merits of the case, instead of focusing on the timing. The decision came an hour before Wisconsin electors cast their 10 Electoral College votes for Biden.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Wisconsin Supreme Court

7. U.S. removes Sudan from list of state terrorism sponsors

The United States on Monday formally removed Sudan from a list of countries considered state sponsors of terrorism. The decision, which came as the U.S. tries to negotiate a normalizing of ties between Sudan and Israel, cleared a key barrier to the African nation's access to international loans and development funding. Sudan had been designated as a terrorism sponsor since 1993, partly due to its support of Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups. It also once sheltered the late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. A popular uprising two years ago led to the removal of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir, who was hostile to the U.S. and Israel. "Today we return to the international community with all our history, the civilization of our people, the greatness of our country and the vigor of our revolution," Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok tweeted.

The Washington Post The Hill

8. Georgia kicks off early voting in crucial Senate runoffs

Early in-person voting started Monday in Georgia ahead of two Jan. 5 runoff elections that will determine which party controls the Senate. About 1.2 million voters have requested absentee ballots, and more than 200,000 have already returned them to election officials. "It looks like we're going to have a high-turnout election," said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican. "I would encourage all the candidates to make sure that they run hard, because we don't have a runoff after the runoff. This is it." Incumbent Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler face challenges from Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. President-elect Joe Biden, fresh off his Monday Electoral College victory, returns to Georgia to back the Democrats. Biden narrowly won in Georgia, which hadn't backed a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992.

The Wall Street Journal The Associated Press

9. Fauci says masks, social distancing will continue through 2021

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday said that despite the optimism sparked by the start of coronavirus vaccinations in the United States, Americans should not expect the pandemic to end soon. "It's not going to be like turning a light switch on and off," he said. "It's going to be gradual." Fauci said COVID-19 vaccines should be widely accessible by spring, but that Americans should be prepared to continue wearing masks and practicing social distancing until late next year, after the country achieves "that umbrella of herd immunity" in late spring or early summer. "I don't believe we're going to be able to throw the masks away and forget about physical separation in congregate settings for a while," Fauci said, "probably likely until we get into the late fall and early next winter."

NBC News CNN

10. Retiring GOP congressman leaves party over Trump denial of election loss

Retiring Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.) announced Monday that he was quitting the Republican Party over its resistance to accepting President Trump's loss to President-elect Joe Biden in the November election. "It became clear to me that I could no longer be associated with the Republican Party [and] that leadership does not stand up and say the process, the election is over," Mitchell told CNN. Mitchell, who plans to become an independent, said he is conservative and voted for Trump, but considered Trump's effort to overturn the election outcome with the support of other Republicans "disgusting and demoralizing." After the Electoral College made Biden's win official on Monday, several leading Republican senators, including Trump ally Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the Senate's No. 4 Republican, publicly recognized Biden as president-elect.

ABC News Reuters