'President-elect Joe Biden?' For Minnesota's Rep. Emmer, not yet

(FOX 9) - Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer declined to call President-elect Joe Biden the president-elect Thursday, but said he planned to attend Biden's inauguration.

Emmer, the chairman of the House GOP's campaign arm, said he thought President Donald Trump's legal efforts to overturn the election results would be over "very soon" now that the Electoral College has met and voted Biden as president.

"I’m going to respect the Trump team’s right to follow whatever processes they want. Those are diminishing. They’re fewer and fewer," said Emmer, who represents Minnesota's 6th Congressional District. "Eventually they’ll exhaust the process and we’ll move on." 

Emmer's comments came during a forum hosted by the Economic Club of Minnesota with Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and CBS News' Major Garrett. At one point, Emmer laughed when Garrett pushed him to call Biden the president-elect.

Emmer acknowledged that Jan. 6 -- when Congress meets to count the electoral votes -- will likely be the day the election will be resolved in his mind.

A growing number of Republican members of Congress have recognized Biden's election win this week after the Electoral College vote, after declining to do so for weeks as Trump waged an unsuccessful legal fight to upend the election results.

Emmer said he would attend Biden's inauguration Jan. 20 "if I'm allowed to." All members of Congress are allowed to attend the inauguration, though the number of guests will be severely limited this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Garrett asked Klobuchar to react to Emmer's comments.

"Tom and I are good friends but we clearly disagree on this. I think this (election) is done," Klobuchar said. "We know we won this election." 

In Minnesota, Trump's allies unsuccessfully sought to get an election lawsuit before the state Supreme Court. Biden won Minnesota's 10 electoral votes by beating Trump by 233,000 votes, or 52-45 percent.