A North Dakota GOP senator stopped short of calling Biden president-elect in a rambling word salad statement, even though the Electoral College has already certified Biden's win

north dakota senator kevin cramer — Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020.
Erin Scott/Pool via AP

GOP Sen. Kevin Cramer stopped short of acknowledging Joe Biden as president-elect in a confusing word salad statement, even after the Electoral College affirmed his win Monday.
"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 President-elect, or anything else-elect," Cramer told a pool reporter Monday, citing a tweet from HuffPost's Igor Bobic.
Cramer is among a slew of other Republicans who have begrudgingly accepted Biden's win, including Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Sen. Chuck Grassley.
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GOP Sen. Kevin Cramer stopped just short of acknowledging Joe Biden as president-elect in a confusing word salad statement, even after the Electoral College affirmed his win on Monday.

Biden surpassed the necessary 270 Electoral College votes on Monday, formalizing his win to become the official president-elect. He also won the popular vote over Trump by nearly 7 million votes in the November election.

"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 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.

GOP 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 thinks "it's time to turn the page and begin a new administration."

When 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 has not yet commented on the results of the Electoral College vote, nor has he conceded the 2020 election. Last month, the president told reporters that he would "certainly" leave the White House if Biden is elected by the Electoral College, while continuing to tout his unsubstantiated claims of election and voter fraud.

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