President-elect Joe Biden is meeting virtually with small-business owners and workers hurt by the pandemic. The Justice Department is investigating a potential bribery scheme for a Trump pardon.
Live Updated Dec. 2, 2020, 4:51 p.m. ET Dec. 2, 2020, 4:51 p.m. ET Presidential Transition Live Updates: Pelosi and Schumer Back Compromise Stimulus Plan as Baseline to Resume Talks RIGHT NOW Defying Trump, Republicans plan to advance military bill without repeal of liability shield for social media companies. Pelosi and Schumer back bipartisan stimulus plan as basis for resuming talks. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that a $908 billion framework being circulated should be used as a foundation for negotiations. Credit... Oliver Contreras for The New York Times The top Democrats in Congress on Wednesday endorsed a $908 billion compromise stimulus plan proposed by a bipartisan group of moderate senators, calling on Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, to revive negotiations using the framework as the baseline. The move represented a significant concession by Democratic leaders who have pressed for a federal aid package of more than twice the size, but it offered no guarantee of a swift deal with Mr. McConnell, who has previously ruled out a measure anywhere near its scale. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. offered a blessing of sorts for the effort in a virtual event with laid-off workers and a small-business owner struggling in the pandemic. Mr. Biden said the bipartisan package "wouldn't be the answer, but it would be immediate help for a lot of things, quickly." Later, he said he had been "urging our congressional Republicans to work on a bipartisan emergency package now," though he stressed that such a package, "at best, is only going to be a down payment." In a statement, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, said that while they had privately made their own offer to Republicans on Monday evening, they believed the $908 billion framework "should be used as the basis for immediate bipartisan, bicameral negotiations." "Of course, we and…