Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz, during a Sunday interview with NBC's Meet the Press suggested that North Dakota Republican Governor Doug Burgum is the GOP's "most normal" 2024 presidential candidate, Politico reports.
"Doug's a pretty good guy, but he's trapped in a Republican Party with no ideas," Walz told host Chuck Todd. "I do believe that Doug is probably the most normal of these — that's a pretty weird group of folks going to be on the debate stage."
However, Burgum, who also appeared on Meet the Press Sunday, "dodged repeatedly when asked for his position on former President Donald Trump's four indictments," according to NBC.
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When Todd asked the GOP governor if he believes ex-President Donald Trump tried to interfere with the 2020 election results, Burgum replied, "I do trust the voters ... they want presidential elections to be about the future, a vision for the future. We have to offer that. If I'm just one more pundit, you know, criticizing everything that’s gone on in 2020, no one's gonna see that there's leadership there."
Walz referred to Burgum's refusal to answer the question during his interview, saying, "Doug wouldn't answer the questions that need to be answered. We're friends, but I hate to see it go down this road. Those are very simple questions you are asking about the President, about the indictments."
NBC notes:
Pressed by Todd on if he feels he should be speaking up to denounce Trump's efforts 'to defend citizens who are essentially part of the law enforcement community,' Burgum said: "That's not leadership."
Leadership is about solving problems. Leadership is about character and integrity. Leadership is about bringing out the best of people. It's about it's about respect for others that have views different than you. That's what it that's why we're running,' he said. 'And absolutely when I'm president, we're going to we're going to lead with respecting everybody. We work for everybody. That's what we'll do.
According to Politico, Walz recently said during a New York Times interview "that if he were to vote in the GOP primary — which he said he does not plan to do — he'd vote for Burgum."
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Politico's full report is available at this link. NBC's report is here.