North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum defended Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump over the weekend following a post he made on social media about holding people accountable for cheating in elections.
Burgum made the remarks during a Sunday interview on NBC News’ “Meet The Press” with host Kristen Welker after Welker brought up Trump’s post, which stated:
CEASE & DESIST: I, together with many Attorneys and Legal Scholars, am watching the Sanctity of the 2024 Presidential Election very closely because I know, better than most, the rampant Cheating and Skullduggery that has taken place by the Democrats in the 2020 Presidential Election. It was a Disgrace to our Nation! Therefore, the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again. We cannot let our Country further devolve into a Third World Nation, AND WE WON’T! Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.
Welker claimed that Trump was “threatening election workers” with his post, to which Burgum noted that Trump is concerned about “making sure that our elections are free and fair.”
“We don’t just have one election in this country, we’ve got elections that go across over 3,000 counties, and many of those counties have different rules,” Burgum said. “And so again, I think what President Trump is saying, we’re going to have free and fair elections, everybody’s got to follow the rules.”
Welker again claimed that Trump was threatening “political operatives, donors, and election officials” and asked if that was appropriate.
“I think what’s appropriate is that we keep working hard as a country to make sure that we’ve got a belief in our elections and a trust in our elections,” Burgum said. “We’ve got some states that remarkably have just now this year cleaned up their voter rolls and eliminating people that no longer live in the state, people that are no longer alive. And when you’re talking about states taking millions of people off the voter rolls, I mean, this is just common sense database clean-up. I’ve spent 30 years in tech. I mean, you can’t run a company if your customer database is completely out of date and has people that no longer are your customers, but you’re still providing – still sending them a ballot, in this case. And so I think there’s a number of basic things that we can all agree on that would make sure that the elections are free and fair.”
WATCH:
Gov. Doug Burgum: “Trump Is Saying If We’re Going To Have Free And Fair Elections, Everybody Has To Follow The Rules” https://t.co/ZOQkz5bQOs pic.twitter.com/ayOK8bgvm7
— RCP Video (@rcpvideo) September 8, 2024