North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, steered clear of commenting on former President Donald Trump's latest indictment, instead saying he believes "we have to move on to the future."
He did, however, say for the first time during his campaign that he believes President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, but also told ABC News' "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos that "everybody's innocent until proven guilty."
"We should be talking about energy, economy, and national security," he told Stephanopoulos.
He also avoided commenting on whether he had read any of the three felony indictments filed against Trump or stating his opinion on whether Trump was wrong when he sought for then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the results of the presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021.
Burgum argued that voters in the first primary states aren't interested in discussing Trump's legal charges.
"I appreciate the question, but, you know, there's an entire industry built around commenting on President Trump and I'll just leave it to the pundits," Burgum said. "I mean, we're in a position today when out talking to voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, they're not asking about the indictments. If they want to they can turn on a cable news network and watch it 7 by 24."
Instead, voters are asking about inflation, he said.
"Prices are up almost 30% versus two years ago," he said. "They're paying too much for their gas and paying too much for their food. They're concerned about our relationship with China, and these are the things that we're focused on in our campaign every day."
He also said he thinks "there were irregularities in terms of how the election went" in 2020, but the courts will go through that, and "panel after panel will talk about it."
"We've got a wide-open border," he said. "I'm going down to see North Dakota National Guard troops at the border tomorrow. I've been down there before, but, you know, with 110,000 overdose deaths last year in America, 107,000 the year before, that's 300 people a day, could you guys run a panel on that and talk about why are we losing sons and daughters every single day to fentanyl?"
The governor added that Republicans are suspicious of why Trump is facing charges and said if he's elected, he'll seek to restore institutional credibility.
"The folks in Washington have to understand that if they're surprised why Trump is leading the polls, it is basically people pushing back and saying, 'Hey, we don't trust the system,'" Burgum said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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