Trump campaign distances itself from attorney Sidney Powell: Transition updates

A new national poll from Monmouth found that only 18% of Republican-identifying respondents said they feel Biden won the presidential election fair and square, while 70% said he won due to voter fraud.

In contrast, 95% of Democrats said Biden won the election fairly and 4% said he won due to voter fraud. Among independents, 67% said Biden won fairly, while 23% said he won due to voter fraud. 

A total of 44% of respondents said they feel very confident the election was conducted fairly and accurately, 16% said they are somewhat confident, while 29% said they are not at all confident.

Fifty-four percent of respondents said they feel the country has enough information to declare a winner of the election, but 44% believe we need more information on the count. 

The poll found that more Americans are happier about Trump's loss (34%) than they are Biden's win (25%). 

Twenty percent of respondents strongly approve of the way Trump is handling the transition, while 46% strongly disapprove.

-ABC News' Meg Cunningham

On a private video call with supporters Wednesday, Biden acknowledged the uphill battle he’s likely to face in the Senate but stressed his fundamental belief that he knows the chamber well enough to achieve consensus. 

“We're going to run into some real brick walls initially in the Senate unless we’re able to turn around Georgia and pick up those two seats, but even then it's gonna be hard,” Biden said. 

“I believe -- I know the place -- I believe we can ultimately bring it together,” the president-elect continued.

Biden spoke about the need to unite the country given more than 70 million people voted for Trump, stopping himself short, before adding that “at least half those folks…are just looking for answers. They’re not bad folks."

-ABC News' Molly Nagle

At one point during an at-times emotional and technologically challenged virtual roundtable with workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis on Wednesday afternoon, Biden lamented that the General Services Administration has still not ascertained him as the winner of the election.

He warned that the delay is going to put his administration weeks behind in terms of a vaccine distribution program and other steps he plans to take to combat the spread of the virus.

“I am optimistic, but we should be further along,” Biden told a group, citing a law which says the GSA may recognize the apparent winner. "And we've been unable to get access to the kinds of things we need to know about the depth of the stockpiles. We know there's not much at all. We get to the point where we have a sense of when these vaccines comes out, how they'll be distributed, who will be first in line, what the plan is."

Biden said unless data and information from the federal government are made available to his team soon, they’re going to be “behind by weeks or months,” on the critically important vaccine program.

“So, I just want to tell you that that's the only slow down right now that we have," Biden said.

-ABC News' John Verhovek, Molly Nagle and Beatrice Peterson

While the Trump administration blocks Biden’s transition and subsequent access to federal pandemic plans, Biden is taking matters into his own hands, speaking directly with front-line health care workers in a virtual roundtable as cases surge across the country. 

Joined by a handful of front-line health care workers from different states including a firefighter paramedic from Indiana, a home care worker from Washington and a nurse from Minnesota, Biden opened the roundtable by thanking them for their participation and promising to protect them.

“It's not enough to praise you, we have to protect you. We have to pay you. And you deserve leadership that listens to you and that works as hard for you as you do for the families in your communities,” Biden said from the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware. 

The participants took turns sharing their stories with Biden telling them he’d have more questions for them after everyone spoke. Mary Turner, president of the Minnesota Nurses Association, got choked up when talking about how she’s been on the picket line for months urging the federal government to do more in its response. 

“Unfortunately, the federal government has not been there. As a result, the pandemic is surging and front-line workers are getting sick and die,” she said through tears. “Nurses across the country were so relieved and grateful, Mr. President-elect, when you committed to take your passion that we need to have to get this pandemic under control.”