Burgum refuses to answer questions on Trump or indictments

Republican Presidential candidate Doug Burgum refused to answer questions about former President Trump or the criminal charges he faces in an interview Sunday.

Burgum five times dodged questions related to Trump in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos. Burgum first declined to comment on Trump’s latest indictment related to his efforts to stay in power after the 2020 election, before dodging a follow-up question asking whether Trump was right to try to overturn the election results in 2020. 

“I believe that the election — that Joe Biden won the election, and I believe we have to move on to the future. But I do believe there were irregularities in terms of how the election went and those are going to be explored,” he said when asked whether Trump was right to try to overturn the results. “Courts will go through all of that, and they’ll do that.” 

First asked about the indictments, Burgum said he would “leave it to the pundits” and tried to pivot to talk about inflation and cost of living.  

“We’ve got to be looking to the future, not to the past. Presidential campaigns should be about the future, not about the past. And that’s what we’re bringing, that voice to this — to this campaign,” Burgum said, responding to the first question. 

Asked whether Trump was wrong to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to not certify electoral votes on Jan. 6 and whether Pence was right to certify the election, Burgum dodged, saying, “George, again, I just have to say, you guys — I just listened to 15 minutes of legal debate on this thing, and I’m sure you could run it again, 7 by 24.”

“But what I know is that I’m running against Joe Biden and that’s what we’re going to be talking about,” Burgum said. “There are people on the ground that are not watching these Sunday programs that are saying, you know, why is the — why is the [Department of Justice] defending Hunter Biden and why are they attacking President Trump? It does seem political to people.”

When pressed about whether he has an opinion on President Trump trying to “overturn the election as alleged in the indictment this week” by special counsel Jack Smith, Burgum dodged again. 

“I’m not a lawyer. I’m an entrepreneur, and I’m someone who leads and operates businesses. It’s something — I care about the people of this country, and you’re asking me, you know, basically a legal question,” he said. “We’re focused on the future. There are just so many people that want to weigh in on this topic around the clock.”

Burgum then dodged a question on whether Trump was right to overturn the election, before saying voters are concerned about issues like fentanyl, manufacturing jobs in China, national security and other issues. 

“And we’ve covered those issues extensively,” Stephanopoulos told Burgum. “But you’re not answering my questions about the front-runner who you need to defeat in order to become the presidential candidate for the Republican Party. You mentioned irregularities. Those have been adjudicated by the courts dozens and dozens of times, and they ruled against President Trump every single time.”

Burgum said he wants to show people who he is and what his campaign is about, without litigating the past.

“We are literally having an unstable world. And every question we get is about the past and not the future. I’m running for the future of America. And we’re going to keep talking about that at every stop,” he said.