North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) ran into a buzzsaw Sunday morning when CNN "State of the Union" host Jake Tapper lectured him for trying to dismiss Donald Trump's hush money payment to an adult film star before the 2016 election as an accounting error.
The billionaire Burgum, who is reportedly high on the former president's running mate list due to his wealth and low-key demeanor, complained the 34-felony count indictment should never have been brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and repeatedly asserted it was nothing more than a "filing error" related to a typical business transaction.
CNN's Tapper wasn't having it.
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Burgum insisted, "Everybody sees this is politically motivated and, like I said, a filing error is not something that would affect any American people that are trying to put food on the table and gas in the car — it doesn't affect them."
"And so it this is why the outcome of this trial is not going to change a lot of people's minds," he maintained. "It might actually, in some ways, help President Trump because it reinforces the idea that the Biden administration is willing to use lawfare to try to attack a political opponent."
"There's no evidence that Joe Biden has anything to do with this case brought forward by District Attorney Bragg and you keep describing it as a filing error. I guess that's one interpretation," Tapper curtly shot back.
"Another interpretation is that Donald Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen, paid hush money to hide from the American people before the election. the fact that Mr. Trump had had a rendezvous with a porn star, and that they wanted to hide that from the American people until after the election," he explained. "So far the the evidence that I've seen suggests there at least was some political motivation to this and they hid it so as to hide that from the public. That's a little bit more than just checking wrong box on a form."
Tapper then cut off the discussion of the topic.
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