GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who contested election results, admits Biden victory wasn't fraudulent

WASHINGTON, D.C. (KXAN/CNN) -- A rising star in the Republican party, North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn, has finally relinquished his claims that Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 Presidential Election was the result of fraud.

In a heated interview with CNN's Pamela Brown, Cawthorn, 25, was questioned about his decision to vote -- along with over 120 other House Republicans -- to overturn the election results.

"Yes, I think I would say that the election was not fraudulent," said Cawthorn. "You know, the Constitution allowed for us to be able to push back as much as we could and I did that to the amount of the constitutional limits that I had at my disposal. So now I would say that Joseph R. Biden is our president."

Cawthorn, who has been a vocal proponent of still unproven voter fraud claims, is one of few to make such a statement. Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley were key figures in the effort to stop Biden from becoming president based on the claims.

Ahead of the January 6 U.S. Senate certification of Biden's electoral victory -- and the fatal attacks on the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump protesters -- Cruz called for a 10-day audit of votes and Hawley flat-out objected to results completely.

Following the Capitol riots, Cawthorn still joined both Cruz and Hawley, in addition to 147 others in the GOP, in voting against certification.

Now, however, the youngest member of the U.S. House, says he's ready to move on.

"So when I contested to the election, that was within the constitutional guidelines that the framers had set up," Cawthorn told CNN. "But after I've done that and the electors and the delegates from each state elected Joe Biden as our president, I respect the office. He is my president, and I want to work with him to make sure that we can bring some meaningful change to the American people."

Claims of voter fraud have been widely refuted by elections experts, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, who called the 2020 election “the most secure in American history.”

Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, a Republican, broke ranks with the Trump administration in December, when he announced the U.S. Justice Department had uncovered no evidence of voter fraud that would have changed the election’s outcome.

Cawthorn has now joined 16 of his fellow Republicans in signing a letter explaining their willingness to work with the Biden administration.