North Dakota GOP Gov. Doug Burgum, who is widely considered to be on the short list to be former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential nominee, on Sunday said that President Joe Biden is “not capable of serving” as commander in chief.
“Biden ... you know, isn’t capable of serving right now,” Burgum told NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” speaking days after Biden and Trump met for the first presidential debate of the election cycle.
“All of America saw,” Burgum said, adding that “our adversaries saw it. Putin saw it. Xi saw it. The ayatollah saw it. I mean, the nation — we keep talking about elections, we’re at a greater national security risk today than we were on Thursday, because the commander in chief showed he’s not capable of serving.”
Burgum’s comments come after days of Democrats scrambling to spin Biden’s admitted lackluster performance in the debate, which some in his party called “babbling” and “hoarse.”
The governor also answered questions from moderator Kristen Welker about whether he’s spoken to Trump about joining him on the ticket as a running mate.
“That would be between the president and I,” Burgum answered, going further than he has before in acknowledging that he’s spoken to Trump about potentially serving as his vice president.
NBC News reported this month that Burgum is still on Trump’s short list of potential nominees, joining GOP Sens. Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance.
The governor was also asked about whether Trump would accept the results of the upcoming election, regardless of who wins.
In the debate, the former president said he would accept the results if “it’s a fair and legal and good election — absolutely.”
“I would have much rather accepted [the 2020 election results],” he added, before baselessly claiming that there was voter fraud in the 2020 election.
On Sunday, Burgum echoed Trump, saying that Trump would accept the presidential election results if “it was free and fair and secure.”
“All the things that any of us, whether you’re an independent, a Democrat or Republican, would expect [are like] the elections we have in North Dakota, where people don’t challenge them, because we’ve got secure elections, and I think that’s what we need in this entire country,” Burgum added.
