State Dept. condemns arrests, repression in Russia

Biden's pick for secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, faced some tough questions in a confirmation hearing Thursday.

If confirmed, Buttigieg would make history as the first openly gay member of the cabinet, and at 38 year old, he would be the youngest member of President Biden's cabinet.

Buttigieg fielded questions about Biden's executive order halting the Keystone XL pipeline. In response to a question from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas about whether the president's halting of the pipeline would eliminate jobs, Buttigieg said Biden's vision is to create more jobs by focusing on climate issues.

"Doing this right means ensuring there are more good, paying, union jobs for all Americans delivered to that infrastructure vision," Buttigieg told Cruz. "The answer is we will continue to see those workers employed in union jobs, even if they are different ones."

Buttigieg also expressed concern with the "antiquated" gas tax and said all options are on the table when it comes to adjusting the tax. He also expressed the need for predictability and stability.
--ABC News' Sam Sweeney, Amanda Maile and Mina Kaji

With his first full day in office focused on the coronavirus pandemic, Biden delivered afternoon remarks on his administration's plan to combat COVID-19 and faulted the Trump administration for a vaccine rollout he called a "dismal failure." He also called on Americans to mask up.

"Things will get worse before they get better," Biden said, expecting 500,000 Americans will have died from COVID-19 by next month. "While the vaccine provides so much hope. Rollout has been a dismal failure thus far. So I understand the despair and frustration, so many Americans and how they're feeling."

Biden went on to deliver what he called a "brutal truth" -- that it will take "months" before the majority of Americans can get vaccinated, so in the meantime, he's putting the "full force of the federal government" into slowing the spread of the virus and calling on the public to mask up for the next 99 days.

"The fact is that the single best thing we could do -- more important in the vaccines -- because they take time to work," Biden said of the practice of wearing a facial covering, adding that experts tell him the united effort could save "more than 50,000 lives going forward."

Biden officials say the president has entered office hamstrung by lack of coordination from the Trump White House and limited insight to where supply levels and chains on resources including N95 and high qualified quality surgical masks, isolation gowns, and test reagents stand throughout the country.

The U.S. Secret Service announced the conclusion of the the special security event for the inauguration at noon Thursday. 

It began Tuesday night and led to road closures and increased security measures, including more than 35,000 security personnel comprising National Guardsmen and other law enforcement and more than 25 miles of fencing in Washington.

Those security measures were already being dismantled.

--ABC News' Jack Date

In a tweet Thursday morning, White House press secretary Jen Psaki clarified her comments from her first press briefing Wednesday, saying Biden intends to keep FBI Director Christopher Wray in his current role and has “confidence” in him.

“I caused an unintentional ripple yesterday so wanted to state very clearly President Biden intends to keep FBI Director Wray on in his role and he has confidence in the job he is doing,” Psaki tweeted.

When asked about Biden’s plans for Wray during her first press briefing Wednesday, Psaki said she had not spoken with Biden about Wray specifically in recent days.

"I think -- I have not spoken with him about specifically FBI Director Wray in recent days," she said. "I'll circle back with you if there's more to convey."

Former President Donald Trump had publicly weighed firing Wray in the wake of losing the presidential election.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle