Doug Burgum Refuses to Say Trump Should Not Declare Victory Before Election Results Are in When Repeatedly Pressed on CNN
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum refused to say on Thursday whether former President Donald Trump should declare victory before the election results are in, despite being repeatedly pressed on the issue by CNN host Kaitlan Collins.
After Collins questioned, “Why is Donald Trump lying about past elections when we’re five days out from the next one?” Burgum dodged the question, replying, “I think the reason he’s in New Mexico is because New Mexico is an energy state and under President Trump’s policies on energy, the economy – it’s also a big border state, securing the border – those are all things that I know matter to voters around the country.”
“Well, no one saying he can’t go there,” replied Collins. “He’s just going there and lying about what happened in the election. He knows he didn’t win in New Mexico.”
She then asked, “But Governor, I was thinking back today to 2020. On the election night then, Donald Trump came out before all the votes had been counted and claimed that he won that election. If you’re around him on Tuesday, will you encourage him to wait until all the results are in and the ballots have been counted?”
Burgum refused to answer, instead responding, “What I’m optimistic for this country is that we’re gonna know the victory on Tuesday night and not, you know, a day later, two days later, weeks later.”
He continued, “There’s a chance that if there’s one or two states that don’t have their count done because they can’t figure out how to get it done on election day, they’re still going to be electoral college victory for President Trump on Tuesday night. So you know, you’re asking a hypothetical. I don’t think that hypothetical is going to come true. I think we’re going to know the winner on Tuesday night.”
Collins shot back:
Well, it’s not a hypothetical. It happened in 2020 and Rudy Giuliani told Donald Trump to go out there and declare victory. Steve Bannon, after getting out of prison the other day, said that Trump’s only mistake was that he should have done it at 11 p.m. that night, instead of two or three o’clock in the morning. I just think, you know, if you are someone he listens to, he consults you, would you encourage him to wait until we do have an answer of what the election results are looking like before he comes out and declares anything?
After Burgum protested, “Well I think, again, you’re going ahead all the way to Tuesday night. I think we’ve got a lot of campaigning to do,” Collins pointed out, “It’s five days away.”
She then questioned, “But Governor, you’ve run races before. Have you ever come out and prematurely declared victory?”
“Well, no, I haven’t had to do that because we’ve been able to win by wide enough margins,” answered Burgum.
Watch above via CNN.
