Trump campaign distances itself from attorney Sidney Powell: Transition updates

Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are holding a virtual meeting with the National Governors Association's Executive Committee to discuss the surging pandemic, pushing forward with their transition despite Trump's roadblocks. 

As he did on the campaign trail, Biden cast himself as someone who will be a "partner in the White House" to governors no matter their party.

"I mean this from the bottom of my heart -- I don’t see this as a red state issue or a blue state issue. I see this -- we’re all in this together," Biden said.

He again lamented that his team has been unable to access vaccination distribution plans and other data as the Trump administration refuses to ascertain him as the president-elect.

Joined by five Democratic governors and five Republicans, Biden has long maintained he will need bipartisan support to implement mask mandates as a key tool to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Following the meeting, Biden and Harris will deliver joint remarks from The Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson confirmed plans for a statewide risk-limiting audit of the election and local performance audits of individual jurisdictions in a statement Thursday.

Benson said the audit is "typical, standard procedure" and not a response to the claims of fraud or irregularities in the election, which she asserted have "no basis in fact."

"Audits are neither designed to address nor performed in response to false or mythical allegations of 'irregularities' that have no basis in fact," she said.

The announcement comes after the two Republican members of the Wayne County board of canvassers signed affidavits on Wednesday saying they were rescinding their vote to certify.

The two Republicans initially agreed to a certify in a compromise vote on Tuesday night -- which involved in part, a commitment to an independent audit which was offered as a last-minute compromise on Tuesday night by the Democratic vice chair Jonathan Kinloch -- before seeking to revoke that vote by Wednesday.

-ABC News' Kendall Karson

The evening before two Republican canvassers on the Wayne County elections board signed affidavits seeking to rescind their votes to certify the election results, Trump spoke with both on Tuesday, sources tell ABC News.

It's not immediately clear if their latest moves to reverse their votes were discussed. ABC News has reached out to both canvassers -- Monica Palmer and William Hartmann.

Palmer, who is the chair of the board, told the Detroit Free Press that she spoke with the president about the threats to her safety.

"He was checking to make sure I was safe after seeing/hearing about the threats and doxxing," she said, without saying if she discussed her decision on Wednesday to rescind her final vote.

-ABC News' Katherine Faulders, Will Steakin and Kendall Karson

The Trump Campaign has just voluntarily dismissed one of its lawsuits in Michigan before a judge was able to rule on it, citing the ongoing drama over the certification of election results in Wayne County -- but falsely claiming the campaign got what it wanted. 

The suit had sought to halt certification of results in the state, and the Trump campaign motion to dismiss incorrectly stated that "the Wayne County board of county canvassers met and declined to certify the results of the presidential election," which is not true. 

As ABC has reported, the two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers late Tuesday night filed affidavits seeking to rescind their votes to certify the results, after they had already voted to approve.

A spokesperson for Michigan's secretary of state has already shot down the idea that the two Republican members can  change the certification.

The two affidavits were attached in the campaign's filing dismissing its own suit.

In a statement, Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said, “This morning we are withdrawing our lawsuit in Michigan as a direct result of achieving the relief we sought: to stop the election in Wayne County from being prematurely certified before residents can be assured that every legal vote has been counted and every illegal vote has not been counted.”

When reached by ABC News, an assistant for Mark Hearne, the lawyer on the case, referred all questions back to the White House.

The campaign has one other lawsuit pending in Michigan, which is being appealed.

Biden leads in the state by over 148,000 votes.

-ABC News' Matthew Mosk and Olivia Rubin