Less than a week before the inauguration, Vice President Mike Pence has reportedly called Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to offer his congratulations.

Pence and Harris spoke over the phone Thursday, with Pence congratulating the incoming vice president and offering "his belated assistance," The New York Times reported on Friday and The Associated Press confirmed.

This is the first time Pence and Harris have spoken since their debate in October, and the call was "described as gracious and pleasant," the Times writes. President Trump has yet to speak with President-elect Joe Biden since the election, having spent more than two months falsely claiming to have won.

Pence may invite Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, to the vice-presidential residence prior to next week's inauguration, according to the Times, though this is reportedly not set in stone due to scheduling issues created by the ongoing security concerns following last week's Capitol riot.

Trump is reportedly expected to leave Washington, D.C. the morning of the inauguration. The president previously confirmed he will skip Biden's swearing-in, but Pence is expected to attend. Brendan Morrow

For her next act, Kayleigh McEnany is heading to Fox News to serve as a contributor — a hire that was met with groans inside the network's newsroom, several employees told The Daily Beast.

McEnany was former President Donald Trump's final press secretary, known for being wrong on everything from COVID-19 ("We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here," she stated in February 2020) to the presidential election (she asserted that Trump had a "one in quadrillion chance" of losing to President Biden). The Daily Beast's Justin Baragona and Diana Falzone — a former FoxNews.com reporter who settled a disability and gender discrimination lawsuit with the network — spoke with multiple Fox News staffers who said bringing McEnany on board was "upsetting" because several employees have been let go.

"It's truly disgusting that they fired hard-working journalists who did care about facts and news reporting only to turn around and hire a mini-Goebbels," one person told The Daily Beast. Fox News is "quickly becoming a very scary place and quite dangerous for our democracy," they added. "It's not even conservative news anymore. They've plunged into an alternate reality where extremist propaganda is the only course on the menu."

The Fox News audience "loves Kayleigh," another staffer told The Daily Beast, and the network's decision to hire her isn't shocking because "they have shown they don't give a damn about facts and real news." McEnany has "name recognition, notoriety, and an obvious willingness to say anything her employer desires," a third Fox News employee said. "The viewers are morons."

Fox News is trying to woo back viewers who didn't like that on election night, the network correctly projected that Biden would win Arizona. Many called for boycotts of Fox News, and switched over to conservative Newsmax. Fox News ratings dipped, with the network finishing in third place for the first time in two decades, The Daily Beast reports. To correct this, two new conservative opinions shows have been added to the lineup.

"They are grasping at straws on how to keep the viewership they built and fueled over the last four plus years with Trump at the forefront," one staffer said. "It has become about keeping viewers and they will do anything to do that, including blatantly lying and selling their souls and integrity to the devil." Fox News did not respond to The Daily Beast's request for comment. Catherine Garcia

The White House announced on Tuesday evening it withdrew the nomination of Neera Tanden as director of the Office of Management and Budget.

In a statement, President Biden said he accepted Tanden's request to have her name withdrawn, adding that he has "the utmost respect for her record of accomplishment, her experience, and her counsel, and I look forward to having her serve in a role in my administration. She will bring valuable perspective and insight to our work."

The White House also released a letter from Tanden, who wrote that she appreciated Biden's support, but it "now seems clear that there is no path forward to gain confirmation, and I do not want continued consideration of my nomination to be a distraction from your other priorities."

Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, faced criticism from Republican senators who accused her of having made "thousands of negative public statements" about people like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). After Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) announced last month that he would not be backing Tanden, she needed the support of at least one Republican in order to win confirmation. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she was considering whether to vote for Tanden, and on Tuesday told reporters she was still undecided. Catherine Garcia

The Senate on Tuesday voted 84-15 to confirm Gina Raimondo as secretary of commerce.

In this role, Raimondo will work to promote American business and industries and ensure fair trade. The Commerce Department is also home to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Raimondo could play a big role in crafting the Biden administration's response to climate change.

Raimondo was the first woman to serve as the governor of Rhode Island, and after the confirmation vote, sent her letter of resignation to Lt. Gov. Daniel McKee (D), who will be sworn in on Tuesday evening as the state's 76th governor. Being governor was "the honor of my lifetime," Raimondo said, and it was "the people of Rhode Island that inspired me and kept me going." Catherine Garcia

Bunny Wailer, the reggae legend and last surviving member of The Wailers, died on Tuesday in Jamaica. He was 73.

His manager, Maxine Stowe, said he died of complications from a stroke he suffered last July. Born Neville Livingston, he formed The Wailers in 1963 with childhood friend Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. They gained international fame in the early 1970s with their albums Catch a Fire and Burnin', but Wailer and Tosh left the group in 1974, with Wailer launching a solo career.

Wailer performed and released records for the next four decades, and won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in 1991, 1995, and 1997. For more than 30 years, he was the only living Wailer, as Marley died in 1981 of a brain tumor and Tosh was shot and killed in 1987 during a home invasion robbery. Catherine Garcia

President Biden delivered some exciting news Tuesday, promising the United States will have enough COVID-19 vaccine supply by the end of May for every American adult to get a shot.

Just a few weeks ago, Biden had set the end of July as the target date for universal availability, but the timeline has been expedited, largely thanks to the addition of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the arsenal. Biden couldn't account for the third shot when he last addressed the situation because it hadn't been granted emergency approval by the Food and Drug Administration at the time.

But that's where the caveats come in. Tuesday's announcement was primarily focused on an increase in supply, which is just one aspect of vaccine distribution. At least some of the hurdles that the U.S. currently faces in terms of actually getting people vaccinated could still be there in May. For example, Biden himself acknowledged that "it's not enough to have the vaccine supply, we need vaccinators — people to put the shots in people's arms," and, as Stat News points out, the president didn't highlight any new efforts to increase the number of vaccinators.

That said, even though it's still unclear if every adult will actually be able to receive a vaccine by the end of May, the U.S. does appear to be consistently increasing its vaccination pace, so the supply increase may have come at the right time. Tim O'Donnell

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced Tuesday that effective next Wednesday, "all businesses of any type" in the Lone Star state will be allowed to fully reopen. Additionally, he's ending the statewide mask mandate.

Those in the room where Abbott broke the news applauded the decision, but plenty of skeptics took note, as well. Coronavirus cases have receded greatly across the country over the last several weeks, but it's unclear if that decline is now plateauing. On a related note, Houston, Texas' largest city, is the one city in the United States to have reported finding at least one case of every known variant of the coronavirus, which are believed to be more transmissible and have experts on the alert for another uptick in cases as they become the dominant sources of infection. It's unlikely Houston is actually alone in this regard, but it's still cause for concern.

Texas is also lagging behind in vaccinating its population, which is the second largest in the nation. Only Utah and Georgia have slower per capita vaccination rates.

Abbott, it turns out, wasn't the only governor to ease restrictions Tuesday — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) actually beat him to the punch, announcing that businesses can operate at full capacity and county mask mandates will be lifted starting Wednesday. Tim O'Donnell