Sky News reporter Adam Boulton lost patience with a Republican strategist during a live interview in which he repeatedly debunked claims that Joe Biden had not won the election.
Live from Washington Boulton interviewed Erin Elmore, the executive director of anti-immigration, anti-globalist organisation USA Strong, who insisted that Biden could not yet be referred to as president-elect – a claim Boulton repeatedly questioned.
Elmore replied: “Darling, I told you that he is not the president-elect of the United States, which he is not. He has not been certified by each state’s secretary of state and the Electoral College has not met yet.
“So if you want to be a proper Brit and be technical, those are the technicalities.”
It is common practice for a president-elect to be named as soon as the result of an election becomes clear, even without full confirmation from a secretary of state and before the meeting of the Electoral College, which doesn’t take place until early December.
Donald Trump was declared president-elect on election night itself back in November 2016, and Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton called him to concede just minutes after Trump passed the 270-vote threshold.
More than a week on from the election, and days after Biden’s win became clear, Trump has still refused to concede to Biden – a move the new president-elect has described as “an embarrassment”.
During the interview with Elmore, Boulton highlighted that the result of the 2020 election had been recognised by some prominent Republicans already, including former president George W. Bush and four Republican senators.
He said: “Look, it’s not a question. I know technically he hasn’t been sworn in yet and the Electoral College hasn’t met, we all know that.
“But we also know that any previous candidate, other than Donald Trump, would have admitted that he’d lost and conceded by now.”
Unsurprisingly, Elmore didn’t agree – blaming the “mainstream media” and “big tech” for “gaslighting” the public and likening the current situation to an episode of Black Mirror.
“What you’re doing is encouraging people to indulge in baseless conspiracy theories,” Boulton replied.
The interview continued on a similar note, with Elmore highlighting her legal credentials as a qualified attorney, continuing to argue that no victory for Biden could be declared until the technical electoral process had been completed.
While a number of social media users criticised Boulton as “aggressive”, he earned praise on Twitter for his no-nonsense approach.
It was announced on Saturday that Biden had surpassed the 270 electoral college votes needed to claim victory in the US election – a win that Trump has since repeatedly called into question with unfounded claims of electoral fraud.
The current president has attempted to push ahead with legal challenges in a number of key states in an attempt to question the legitimacy of postal votes and counting processes – a number of which have already failed.