A North Dakota GOP senator stopped short of calling Biden president-elect in a rambling statement, even after the Electoral College certified Biden's win
- GOP Sen. Kevin Cramer stopped short of acknowledging Joe Biden as president-elect Monday night, issuing a word-salad statement after the Electoral College affirmed Biden's win.
- "Well, it seems to me that being elected by the Electoral College is a threshold where a title like that is probably most appropriate, and it's, I suppose you can say official, if there is such a thing as official president-elect, or anything-else-elect," Cramer told a pool reporter Monday, according to a tweet from HuffPost's Igor Bobic.
Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer stopped just short of acknowledging Joe Biden as president-elect Monday in a word-salad statement after the Electoral College affirmed Biden's win.
Biden surpassed the necessary 270 Electoral College votes on Monday, formalizing his win against President Donald Trump. He also won the popular vote over Trump by nearly 7 million votes.
"Well, it seems to me that being elected by the Electoral College is a threshold where a title like that is probably most appropriate, and it's, I suppose you can say official, if there is such a thing as official president-elect, or anything-else-elect," Cramer told a pool reporter Monday, according to HuffPost's Igor Bobic.
Though Cramer still hasn't outright acknowledged Biden's victory, the senator from North Dakota did appear to soften his stance on Trump's challenges to the election results.
In a confusing monologue, Cramer said there was a "big race" between "the inaugural committee and the Justice Department."
"And there's an inauguration that will swear somebody in, and that person will be the president of the United States, but whether you call it that or not, you know, there are legal challenges that are ongoing - not very many - probably not a remedy that would change the outcome but, so, I don't - again, I don't know how politician refers to another politician, but it does look to me like the big race is really between the inaugural committee and the Justice Department at this point, so we'll see how the emails turn out."
While many congressional Republicans have publicly accepted the results of the election, some GOP senators have been somewhat more reluctant to acknowledge Biden's win.
Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a known Trump ally, called Biden the "presumptive president" but noted the ongoing legal challenges to the election results from the Trump campaign and its supporters.
"I don't want to discount valid, legal disputes that'll be settled over the next couple weeks," Tillis said.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, said "it certainly looks" that Biden is set to become the next president following the Electoral College vote, and she said she thought "it's time to turn the page and begin a new administration."
Asked his thoughts on Biden's win, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said: "It doesn't matter what Chuck Grassley thinks - the Constitution has answered that question for you. That's all I can say on it."
Trump on Monday night had not yet commented on the results of the Electoral College vote, nor has he conceded the 2020 election. Last month, the president told reporters he would "certainly" leave the White House if Biden were elected by the Electoral College, while continuing to tout his unsubstantiated claims of election and voter fraud.