Media Debate Reaction: Burgum Fights His Way In
Media Highlights and Reaction to the Second GOP Debate.
InForum: McFeeley: Burgum Gets His Moment
Burgum had reason to be upset when other candidates were given questions about technology and oil — two areas in which the billionaire former software executive and current governor of an oil-rich state is a bonafide expert — and the moderators ignored him in favor of Ramaswamy, Haley and Scott.
Burgum had the closest thing he's had to a memorable moment late in the evening when he forced his way into the conversation and claimed he's the only candidate actually doing what others are talking about, like drilling for more oil and sending troops to America's southern border.
"We're fighting the Biden administration on 20 fronts (in North Dakota)," Burgum said, actually looking angry. "To say that nobody's fighting the big fights ... just look at the record of what we're doing right now. Energy, economy, national security. We've been talking about it since day one. And now finally, good, we're having a conversation about it. But we've got the answer in North Dakota."
Varney, seemingly impressed by Burgum's fire, gave the governor the next question: How would you shrink big government? Burgum pointed to his experience in North Dakota.
"When I took office, we shrunk the state budget general fund by 27% in the first four months I was in office and all the trains kept running on time. Why? Because you had a business leader that was actually there," Burgum said, still fiery from his previous answer.
"Inside of every government job there's 10% or 20% of mind-numbing, soul-sucking work that even state and federal employees don't want to do. You can engineer that work out of the job. That would free up right there 20% of 2 million civilian employees. And by the way, we have 10 million jobs open so they'd have plenty to do. They'd be generating taxes instead of being paid by taxes. "This is totally possible to do if you have somebody that understands. Having worked in technology for 30 years, everything we had to was be better, faster and cheaper the next day. That's what we can do in government. That's what we're doing in North Dakota."
InForum: Pugnacious Doug Burgum forces himself into debate conversation
The Fox Business moderators didn't seem much interested in hearing from North Dakota's governor during the GOP's 2nd presidential debate, but he made himself heard anyway.
…At 82 minutes in, Burgum was tossed his fourth question by Dana Perino, who made it clear that the farm-state guy was getting the agriculture question. It was patronizing, but Burgum turned the question about the nation's agriculture industry's well-being back to the central themes of his campaign. "We're in a cold war with China. The Biden administration won't admit that," he said. It's about national security, too. "We get attacked every day...by either China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea," he said, referring to cyberwarfare. It's also about energy. "China imports 10 million barrels a day. We have had four cabinet members visit China, and not one of them has talked about energy," Burgum said. "It's not climate change we need to talk about. It's actually Biden's climate policies that are the existential threat."
…By my count, Burgum was directly asked questions just four times all night. He successfully forced his way into the conversation three other times. According to a live analysis by the New York Times, Burgum spoke for just 7 minutes and 35 seconds, significantly less than any of the other candidates. And that's a shame. Burgum clearly has good answers.
FOX Business: Conservatives, pundits name their winners and losers from 2nd GOP debate
"I think the winners were Ron DeSantis and Doug Burgum," Fox News Host Will Cain posted on X.
Politico: Illinois debate-watch doozies
Members of the Chicago Republican Party gathered at Billy Goat Inn on Madison Street, where the straw poll showed Vivek Ramaswamy as the winner of last night’s spectacle in California, Nikki Haley and Doug Burgum surging and the rest of the field losing ground since the August GOP debate.
• Doug Burgum: 14.5 percent (2.5 in August)
FOX News: You don’t have to pick a career politician: Doug Burgum
Post debate interview with Gov. Doug Burgum
Fox News: Doug Burgum: Biden's foreign policies are 'absurd'
Fox Business: Doug Burgum: This strike is at Joe Biden's feet
ABC News: Doug Burgum: Most Business Experience on Stage
Post debate interview with Gov. Doug Burgum
CNN: Burgum one of only four candidates named a winner by Iowa focus group
