Today in one sentence: The Electoral College affirmed Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States after the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit by Texas seeking to throw out the election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin that Trump lost in November; the United States administered the first shots of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to health care workers as the U.S. topped 300,000 total deaths since the pandemic began; Trump delayed a plan for senior White House staff members to receive the coronavirus vaccine early; Russian government hackers breached the Treasury, Commerce, and Homeland Security departments; and Attorney General William Barr resigned.

1/ The Electoral College affirmed Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States after the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit by Texas seeking to throw out the election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin that Trump lost in November. All 538 electors cast their votes for president based on the election results that were recently certified by all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The president-elect is expected to speak in prime time after surpassing 270 electoral votes needed to win. On Friday, the Supreme Court issued a short, unsigned order that said Texas had “not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another state conducts its elections.” It dismissed all pending motions about the case. All six battleground states – Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin – that Trump contested cast their votes for Biden. (Politico / Bloomberg / NBC News / CNBC / Wall Street Journal / New York Times / CNN / Washington Post / Politico / NPR / Bloomberg)

2/ The United States administered the first shots of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to health care workers as the U.S. topped 300,000 total deaths since the pandemic began. On Friday, the FDA authorized the vaccine from Pfizer for emergency use in the United States for people age 16 and older. An initial shipment of about 2.9 million doses of the vaccine will be sent to 636 locations by the end of this week. Federal officials expect 20 million people to get the first of two required doses by the end of the month and have 100 million people in total immunized by the end of March. Trump, meanwhile, tweeted: “First Vaccine Administered. Congratulations USA! Congratulations WORLD!” (New York Times / Washignton Post / Wall Street Journal / NBC News / CNBC / New York Times / NBC News / Washington Post)

3/ Trump delayed a plan for senior White House staff members to receive the coronavirus vaccine early. In a tweet, Trump said he asked White House staffers to receive the coronavirus vaccine “somewhat later in the program, unless specifically necessary” after it was reported that the administration was planning to rapidly distribute the vaccine to staffers despite the first doses generally being reserved for health care workers. It’s not clear how many doses were allocated for the White House since many staff members had already tested positive for the virus and recovered. (New York Times / Bloomberg / The Guardian / CNN / Washington Post)

4/ Russian government hackers breached the Treasury, Commerce, and Homeland Security departments as part of a months-long global espionage campaign. While the full scope and significance of the breaches remain unclear, the hack, which may have begun as early as spring, led to an emergency National Security Council meeting at the White House on Saturday. The hackers, known as APT29 or Cozy Bear, are part of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, SVR, which also hacked the State Department and the White House email servers during the Obama administration. Last month, Trump fired the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Chris Krebs, after Krebs vouched for the integrity of the presidential election and disputed Trump’s claims of widespread electoral fraud. (Reuters / Washington Post / New York Times / CNN / Wall Street Journal / Politico / Associated Press / NBC News / Washington Post)

5/ Attorney General William Barr resigned and will leave “just before Christmas,” Trump announced via tweet. Trump said he and Barr had a “very nice meeting” and that their “relationship has been a very good one.” In a meeting last week, however, Trump raised the idea of firing Attorney General William Barr, reportedly “furious” that Barr had kept a federal investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes from becoming public before the November election. Trump also told Fox News this weekend that Barr “should have stepped up” on the matter. Trump was also reportedly upset that Barr was considering resigning before January 20. Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen will become Acting Attorney General. (CNN / New York Times / NPR / Washington Post / NBC News / Associated Press)

  • SATURDAY: Trump attacked Barr on Twitter for not violating Justice Department policy to publicly reveal an investigation into Hunter Biden during the election. Trump retweeted a post that said Barr “should be fired by the end of business today” if he had worked to keep a criminal investigation of Biden’s son Hunter Biden secret during the election, following a report in the Wall Street Journal. Trump also called Barr “A big disappointment!” (New York Times / CNBC)

  • The Justice Department subpoenaed Hunter Biden, seeking documents and information related to more than two dozen entities, including Ukraine gas company Burisma. Meanwhile, Biden’s former business partner sent him an email in 2017 saying he did not disclose on his tax returns $400,000 in income from Burisma, where he sat on the board. Federal authorities are also actively investigating Hunter’s business dealings in foreign countries, principally China. (Associated Press / NBC News / CNN)

  • Trump and senior White House officials have discussed the possibility of appointing a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden. Under Justice Department regulations, the appointment of a special counsel would have to be made by the attorney general. (Wall Street Journal)

Two years ago today: Day 694: "Of course."
Three years ago today: Day 329: Break the internet.