Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND), a former 2024 presidential candidate who now backs former President Donald Trump, told Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday the race for the Republican presidential nomination “should be over after New Hampshire.”
Speaking with host and Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle, Burgum called for unity after walking through Trump’s historic win in the Iowa Caucuses, where he took a majority of the vote, shattered the record for the largest margin of victory in the history of contested Iowa GOP Caucuses, and won 98 of 99 counties.
“There’s been a lot of talk. The whole narrative has been ‘Narrow the field. Narrow the field,’ and now it’s time to do that. This race for the nomination for the Republican Party should be over after New Hampshire,” Burgum said.
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He later emphasized that “The sooner we can get everybody consolidated going. the sooner we can start turning the corner, because this country can’t take another four years [of] Joe Biden.”
Boyle had asked Burgum to recount his experience with the Trump campaign during the caucuses on Monday and why he decided to endorse the former president.
In his response, Burgum laid out a stark contrast between Biden and Trump on the economy, energy, and national security.
“[Biden’s] going the wrong direction on the economy, the wrong direction on energy policy, and the wrong direction on national security, which includes border security. Those are the three things that, when I was running for president, that we were running on,” Burgam said. “What’s the decision to support President Trump? Well, he’s going in the right direction on the economy, the right direction on energy policy, and the right direction on national security, including the border security.”
Burgum said it was an “easy decision” to back Trump and noted that he was an early supporter of his in the 2016 Republican presidential primary.
“President Trump and I got elected on the same day for the first time,” Burgum recalled of the 2016 election. “I had come from the private sector. He came from the private sector. But I had endorsed him early in that race – early in the primary before it was clear that he was going to even be the nominee. I supported him and spoke for him at a caucus in Iowa in 2020. So this is an easy decision to get behind the president.”
Trump had high praise for Burgum in his victory speech Monday, saying he would hope to have Burgum as “a very important piece of the administration,” if he is elected.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), another of of Trump’s former 2024 campaign rivals, joined the program earlier in the day, where he also called for unity and declared the race finished.
“The race is already over,” Scott told Boyle. “And politically speaking and figuratively speaking, they are dead people walking. It is time for this Republican Party to focus only on one person, and that is eliminating Joe Biden by electing Donald Trump.”
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Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.