Republican senator mocked for going to ridiculous lengths to avoid calling Biden president-elect

A Republican senator has been mocked after he went to ridiculous lengths to avoid calling Joe Biden the president-elect.

On Monday, the US Electoral College confirmed Mr Biden as the winner of the presidential election, with 306 electoral votes to Mr Trump’s 232. The president-elect also won the popular vote by more than 7 million ballots.

However, when North Dakota GOP senator Kevin Cramer, 59, was asked about the confirmation of Mr Biden’s victory on Monday, he avoided calling him the president-elect with a rambling answer about the 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, if there is such a thing as official president-elect, or anything-else-elect,” Mr Cramer told a pool reporter according to Huffpost.

He then referenced Donald Trump’s ongoing legal battles to overturn the election results and said there was a “big race” between “the inaugural committee and the Justice Department.”

Although Mr Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election last month, Mr Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed there was widespread voter fraud and has still not conceded.

President Trump and his team have had more than 50 legal challenges dismissed over the last month, as he and his allies are still attempting to overturn 3 November’s election results. There is no evidence for the claims.

“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,” Mr Cramer continued.

“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,” the senator added, while still managing to avoid referring to Mr Biden as the winner of the election.

Twitter users mocked the senator for the lengths he went to in order to avoid calling Mr Biden the president-elect.

User @gmfunk responded to Mr Cramer’s statement: “And the winner of the Orwellian double speak award goes to Kevin Cramer.”

While @jb_in_motion said: “10/10 for gymnastic pretzelization,” and @ItsMeGaryLee added: “Seems that his go-to workout routine is verbal gymnastics.”

Although several senior Republicans have congratulated Mr Biden, including former US president George W Bush, others have been more reluctant to acknowledge his election victory.

When asked for his thoughts on Mr Biden’s win on Monday, Iowa senator Chuck Grasseley 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,” according to Business Insider.

While North Carolina GOP senator Thom Tillis called Mr Biden the “presumptive president,” but noted the Trump campaign’s ongoing efforts to overturn 3 November’s election results.

“I don't want to discount valid, legal disputes that'll be settled over the next couple weeks,” he told reporters on Monday.

President Trump has still not commented on the result of the Electoral College vote, and is yet to concede the election.

Speaking after the confirmation of his Electoral College victory on Monday, Mr Biden criticised President Trump’s efforts and said it is time to “turn the page, as we've done throughout our history, to unite, to heal”.