middle of january, right before the inauguration. and it comes after president trump fired his defense secretary. let s get right to martha raddatz tonight. martha, what are you learning? reporter: david, the president had tweeted in october that all american forces should be home by christmas, but he got push-back from the military and some on the hill. so, he will not get the full withdrawal he want, but this is significant. in afghanistan, the troops will be reduced from 4,500 to 2,500, and in iraq, reduced from 3,000 to 2,500, by mid-january. this, of course, will come right before joe biden is sworn in as president, but joe biden has also advocated for a smaller presence in afghanistan since we just entered our 20th year there, david. 20th year. and martha, the reaction was swift, though, involving the timing of all this. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, a republican, commented, saying a rapid withdrawal of u.s. troops from afghanistan now would hurt our
reporter: in the courts, where evidence gets scrutinized, authenticated and tested, they re getting hammered. more than two dozen cases have been brought and no finding of fraud from any judge, state or federal, republican or democratic. case after case tossed out and the judges strikingly dismissive of the claims. in michigan, republicans claimed they had evidence the count should be stopped. the judge wasn t having it. i heard somebody else say something. tell me why that s not hearsay. come on now. reporter: in nevada, republican lawyers claimed their observers weren t close enough. the judge snapped, at what point does this get ridiculous? in pennsylvania, trump s lawyers claimed their observers were being blocked then admitted they were in the room. the judge, a republican appointee, firing back, i m sorry, then what s your problem? still, the trump campaign is bombarding supporters, sending hundreds of emails looking for money, claiming progress. this election is far f
it s happening. but a chunk of that money went to retire the president s campaign debt and now the fine print reads that 60% of each contribution first to save america, that s trump s own new political action committee. and terry moran with us live tonight, as well. and terry, as the president fights in court, he s also refusing to begin any transition work, as we reported earlier here. and tonight, abc news also learning that the head of the general services administration, a trump appointee, she would be the one to actually get the ball rolling on any transition. there s news on her tonight? reporter: there is, david. emily murphy is the head of the gsa, charged by federal law with pulling the trigger to start the transition and she won t do it, apparently because of these court cases. but we have learned that she is making inquiries about employment outside the government in 2021. so, either she s hedging her bets or she can count. david? all right, terry moran tonight. terr
going to stop and call a time-out while things change. we want to really get the ball rolling as we get into january, february and march. we want a smooth process with that. and the way you do that is by essentially having the two groups speak to each other and exchange information. reporter: the head of trump s operation warp speed is also sounding the alarm. it is our focus to make sure that we re going to save people s lives. and anything that may slow that process or create any disruption is something that worries us appropriately. reporter: but the president is stonewalling, refusing to concede and proceed with a peaceful transition of power. over the weekend, it seemed like he was starting to recognize reality, tweeting of biden, he won. but today, he was back to declaring, i won the election. it doesn t appear that the president is going to come around any time soon and admit defeat. so what are you going to do?
seeing children in cages. those are voters that i think are get bible. i think who is not gettable are the old, white fox news watching men. that said, that s trump s space. this is a bit crass but there are fewer and fewer of those voters every year. they have done a good job of alienating pretty much everyone else. how much of trump s success is tied to that moment. when you look at how they voted in 2016, the moment has changed. we have seem so much egregiousness the past three years. i don t know. i can t say. it s a really, really good question. it s a hard with unto answer. i reach out and try to understand their way of thinking. and i really listen. and i always ask what about the cruelty? what about the cruelty? what about the meanness?