Fox Anchor Confronts Billionaire North Dakota Governor On Criticism He ‘Bought’ His Way Onto Debate Stage

North Dakota governor and Republican 2024 presidential candidate Doug Burgum joined Fox News on Thursday to discuss the upcoming GOP primary debate, for which he has qualified despite low name recognition and small media coverage.

The interview kicked off with anchors Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer asking Burgum how he’s preparing for the debate.

Burgum replied offering a little bit of shade for the RNC event, which will air on Fox. “These really aren’t debates. 60 seconds answers, no opening statement. A chance to answer questions in a multi-candidate format,” Burgum clarified, adding that “Being here with you is great debate prep.”

The interview continued with some rapid-fire questions on various issues, including whether or not Burgum would like to see Donald Trump at the debate. As the interview wound down, Hemmer asked Burgum one last question about criticism regarding how he met the 40,000 individual threshold to get on the debate stage.

“You’re getting your answers down. And that comes with work. I just want to squeeze in one more – on the screen here,” Hemmer began, adding:

You did a deal. You were successful in business. Yes. You lived the American dream. You came to politics to make a change, but you also kind of did a deal to get the unique donors to back you up. And it was like, go ahead and give me a dollar and I’ll give you $19 back, essentially — screen guys, You mean you spent $760,000? What would you say to those who say you bought your way for a place on the stage?

“I would say meet an entrepreneur that knows how to solve a problem,” Burgum replied, citing his successful business career during which he amassed a net worth greater than $1 billion.

“Other people that were trying to do this, if you went to one of the so-called professional fundraising firms, they were going to they said, we can get you 40,000 donors. It’ll only cost 100 bucks a pop. That’s 4 million. We did it for less than one-fourth. The price of what a professional fundraising firm — like one-fifth the price,” he continued, adding:

And anybody that’s ever, an entrepreneur has ever started an online business, you’ve got to — if you’re no one’s heard of you and you’ve got a new online business –what do you do? You lead with a promotion. You get people to come to your site and when they come, guess what? They buy a T-shirt, they buy a cup, they spend some money. A lot of people that came to that site spent a lot more than a buck. And a lot of them are coming back because they’re saying we could use an entrepreneur in the White House. We could use a problem solver.

“Because that rule, that clubhouse rule was designed to keep people like me off the stage. It was perfect for DC insiders, perfect for people with held national office. Huge barrier for someone who’s come in from the outside that nobody knows. And we cracked our way through it in a matter of weeks,” Burgum boasted.

Watch the full clip above via Fox News.