Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum snapped back Sunday at NBC host Kristen Welker after being asked about former President Donald Trump “unequivocally” accepting the election results of 2024.
Burgum appeared on “Meet the Press” to discuss the recap of the first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and Trump Thursday evening. Welker began by questioning Burgum on Trump’s debate response to accepting the outcome of the 2024 election, claiming that he refused to accept the election “three times.” (RELATED: ‘Rigged’: Death Of The American Voter | WATCH NOW)
“Let me ask you, should Donald Trump, as the presidential nominee, unequivocally accept the election results?” Welker questioned.
“Kristen, I heard him on Thursday night say that he would accept the result of the election if it was free and fair and secure, all the things any of us, whether you’re an independent, Democrat or Republican, would expect, like the elections we have in North Dakota where people don’t challenge them because we’ve got secure elections. I think that’s what we need in this entire country. I think he answered the question. I think the real question is, you know, if President Trump wins in the fall, which it looks like he will, I mean will Joe Biden and the Democrats accept the results?” Burgum pushed back.
Welker continued on to claim that Trump’s response contained “caveats” which allegedly undermine people’s “faith in democracy.” However, Burgum highlighted the push back on election results from the Democratic Party in 2000 and 2016.
“As you know though in his answer, repeatedly, there were caveats and those types of caveats are what undermine people’s faith in a free and fair democracy. Is he not undermining people’s faith in the democracy and the democracy itself by raising questions about the fairness of the 2020 election, which by the way, is on record as being one of the most fair elections in U.S. history?” Welker asked.
“I think this — I have to reject the whole premise because just in the short lifetime you don’t have to be that old to know that in 2000, the Democrats challenged the election, they had every right to challenge it, it went down to one county, the ‘hanging chads’ in Broward County in Florida. In 2016, yes, Hillary Clinton conceded the election but then immediately after that, began, you know, what’s still going on today, a smear campaign about whether the election results in ’16 were legitimate. So both parties have done this. As a country if we want to move forward we have to have elections both parties agree to,” Burgum said.
Republicans have expressed their concerns over a free and fair election since 2020, with Republican National Committee (RNC) co-chair Lara Trump ensuring that the party will be instituting measures to make sure ballots are secure. Earlier this month, Lara trump announced the RNC’s plan to have over 100,000 poll watchers along with over 500 lawyers in preparation for the election.
