The Biden transition team is in the process of vetting Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM) for Interior secretary, sources told The Hill.

If tapped by Biden, Haaland’s nomination would be historic, making her the first Native American Cabinet secretary, overseeing an agency with vast responsibility over tribal issues and public lands.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday said there will be an “orderly transfer” between administrations on Jan. 20, though he did not mention President-elect Joe Biden or President Trump, who is refusing to concede, by name, NBC News reports.

“President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday named a slate of key White House staff members as he continues to fill out his team before taking office in January,” CNBC reports.

“President-elect Joe Biden has privately told advisers that he doesn’t want his presidency to be consumed by investigations of his predecessor, despite pressure from some Democrats who want inquiries into President Trump, his policies and members of his administration,” NBC News reports.

“Biden has raised concerns that investigations would further divide a country he is trying to unite and risk making every day of his presidency about Trump.”

“They said he has specifically told advisers that he is wary of federal tax investigations of Trump or of challenging any orders Trump may issue granting immunity to members of his staff before he leaves office.”

Jen O’Malley Dillon will join President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration as a deputy chief of staff, CNN reports.

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President-elect Joe Biden’s team are arguing that it makes the most strategic sense for now to let public pressure build on President Trump for preventing the transition from officially taking place, rather than using the power of the House Democrats’ majority to draw more attention to the matter,” CNN reports.

“Democrats are trying to avoid turning Trump’s refusal to accept the election results into a partisan fight, believing Trump will be in an untenable position if more Republicans join their calls to let the transition officially begin as the President’s legal case continues to collapse and states begin certifying the election results.”

Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) will join Joe Biden’s administration in a senior role “overseeing public engagement,” leaving his seat in the House of Representatives just after being elected to his sixth term, Bloomberg reports.

Michelle Obama excoriated President Trump and first lady Melania Trump on Instagram for refusing to behave “maturely” and blocking the smooth transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden.

Obama wrote about how she welcomed the Trump to the White House in 2016 despite the fact that Donald Trump had “spread racist lies about my husband that had put my family in danger.”

She added: “That wasn’t something I was ready to forgive. But I knew that, for the sake of our country, I had to find the strength and maturity to put my anger aside.”

After saying he would step in if President-elect Joe Biden still wasn’t receiving detailed intelligence briefings Friday, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) told Newsmax TV that his comments had been blown out of proportion.

Said Lankford: “I’m not in a hurry, necessarily, to get Joe Biden these briefings, it’s been interesting how the media, the national media, not this network, but others have twisted this term ‘step in.’ I happen to chair the committee that oversees GSA, that is the entity that has to be able to make this call.”

“The top General Services Administration official who’s blocking President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team from accessing government resources ahead of his inauguration appears to be looking for a new job,” ABC News reports.

“Emily Murphy, head of the GSA, recently sent that message to an associate inquiring about employment opportunities in 2021, a move that some in Washington interpreted as at least tacitly acknowledging that the current administration soon will be gone.”

President Trump’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien promised a “very professional” transition to the administration of President-elect Joe Biden in an interview broadcast Monday, even as Trump continues to falsely claim he won the November election, the AP reports.

Said O’Brien: “Look, if the Biden-Harris ticket is determined to be the winner — and obviously things look that way now — we’ll have a very professional transition from the National Security Council.”

New York Times: “After spending election week in Delaware, she has returned to the two-bedroom Washington condominium she bought after she was elected to the Senate in 2016. From there, she is in regular touch with Mr. Biden, by text message or telephone, according to aides with the Biden-Harris transition team, and with other transition officials…”

“One focus of her time is the quantum leap Ms. Harris is soon to make from the legislative to the executive branch. Whereas Mr. Biden will have virtually no learning curve upon returning to the White House after eight years as vice president, Ms. Harris has spent little, if any, substantive time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

“For now, Ms. Harris remains a senator. It is unclear when she might relinquish her seat. Mr. Obama stepped down from his Senate seat days after his 2008 election, but Mr. Biden, ever the sentimentalist, hung on to his until shortly before he was sworn in as vice president the following January, telling friends he wanted to take one last oath of office for the seat he had held for decades.”

Washington Post: Harris’s allies wonder anxiously: Will she have real clout?

“President-elect Joe Biden campaigned on a transformational liberal policy platform, calling for ‘revolutionary institutional changes’ and $7 trillion of new spending to remake the American economy as he styled himself a modern-day FDR,” the Washington Post reports.

“Yet Biden’s decisive electoral college victory — he won the national popular vote by more than 5 million and flipped five states — came with no coattails down ballot that would help him push through his ambitious plans. Instead, the country appears to have rejected both President Trump and the idea of Democratic control, with the liberal policy overhaul it would have brought — forcing a rapid recalibration by Biden of what remains possible.”

“President-elect Joe Biden is expected to take a historic step and select a woman to head the Pentagon for the first time, shattering one of the few remaining barriers to women in the department and the presidential Cabinet,” the AP reports.

“Michele Flournoy, a politically moderate Pentagon veteran, is regarded by U.S. officials and political insiders as a top choice for the position.”

“President-elect Joe Biden’s return to ‘normalcy’ will include restoring the daily press briefing — and at least two women are under consideration to lead the new post-Trump show,” Politico reports.

“Kate Bedingfield is seen as having the inside track to become either White House communications director or press secretary. Symone Sanders could be offered the role of incoming press secretary, or slot into another position before winding up ‘at the podium’ down the line, Biden aides and other people in and around the transition said.