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Gov. Doug Burgum, a potential Trump running mate, says “the election is not gonna turn on this trial”
Washington — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, considered to be one of the contenders to be Donald Trump’s running mate, said Sunday that November’s election will not be decided by the former president’s guilty conviction in the New York “hush money” trial.
“While this is interesting and it’s captivating right now to a lot of people, the election is not gonna turn on this trial,” Burgum said on “Face the Nation” Sunday.
A Manhattan jury last week found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence before the 2016 presidential election. But Republicans have derided the verdict, sticking by their presumptive nominee for president and claiming that the jury was biased, although the jury was composed of seven men and five women who were all approved by both the defense and the prosecution.
Burgum echoed the skepticism in the verdict, while asserting that Americans haven’t been paying close attention to the trial. He argued that working Americans don’t have time to keep up with the details of the trial, and he suggested that it won’t have a major impact on the electorate come November.
“As this moment in time passes, when we have the election coming this fall, people are going to make a decision about, are they better off today than they were four years ago?” Burgum said, noting that Americans already had a chance to live their lives under a Trump administration. “Americans are gonna come back to the issues that affect them because this trial outcome doesn’t affect them, the inflation affects them.”
According to a CBS News poll conducted after the verdict, just over a third of Americans said they had been following the news about the Trump trial and conviction “very closely.” The survey also found that just over half of Americans think the jury reached the right verdict and that the trial was fair, which is virtually unchanged from the portion of the country that thought Trump was guilty before the verdict. And Republicans overwhelmingly said they think that Trump was treated unfairly, a sentiment that he and his surrogates have touted for months.
Burgum was among a group of Republican officials who appeared at the Manhattan courthouse in the days leading up to the verdict to support the former president. Though the North Dakota governor had launched a long-shot bid for the White House, he bowed out of the race in December and later endorsed Trump. Since then, he’s become a major advocate for the former president and is thought to be among the contenders for Trump’s running mate.
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When asked about reporting from The Washington Post that Trump met with oil executives and told them that if they raise $1 billion to help him return to the White House, he would reduce regulation and start auctioning off drilling leases, Burgum backed up the former president.
“I was at that meeting. That did not happen,” Bugum said. “He didn’t ask for a billion dollars in donations and there was no quid pro quo.”
The Washington Post also reported that Trump suggested to those oil executives he would ease scrutiny of industry, mergers and acquisitions if he wins, which Burgum also denied. But when asked what did happen at the meeting, Burgum said Trump “went around the room for two hours, asking each of the people to tell me, what are your challenges? What are you facing? What are- what are the things that- he was there learning the whole night about the challenges that we’re facing.”
But Burgum insisted that Trump isn’t “targeting” the oil industry to finance his reelection bid, although he added that current environmental restrictions are “hurting this country.”
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Long before comic book characters dominated movie screens, actor Christopher Reeve made the world believes in superheroes with the 1978 classic “Superman.”
Reeve died in 2004, nearly a decade after an accident re-shaped his life. “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” is using interviews with family and friends and never-before-seen home videos to explore his real-life heroism.
Reeve started his career on the stage, studying at the prestigious Juilliard School and living with comedian Robin Williams. The pair had a friendship that was “more like a brotherhood,” said Reeve’s son Matthew. Reeve was in awe of Williams’ energy and versatility, Matthew Reeve said, but audiences quickly clued into Reeve’s own star power when he took on the role of the Man of Steel.
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To his children, though, he “was just dad,” Matthew Reeve said. The documentary explores how Matthew Reeve and his sister Alexandra Reeve Givens grew up watching their dad take the stage as Superman. “Super/Man” also reveals their heartbreak over their parents’ breakup and the joy they found when Reeve re-married. He tied the knot with Dana Reeve in 1992, and the pair welcomed another child, William Reeve, later that year.
“Dana was sunshine,” Alexandra Reeve Givens recalled. “She just brought joy with her wherever she was and could find it even in the darkest moments.”
Those dark moments came suddenly, when in 1995, a near-fatal horseback riding accident left Reeve paralyzed from the neck down. The documentary allows viewers to see, for the first time, what went on out of the public’s view. Reeve can be heard talking about how he “ruined (his) life and everybody else’s,” but in a touching moment, old friend Robin Williams is seen visiting him in the hospital.
“Robin showed him ‘Hey, you’re still you,'” Alexandra Reeve Givens said. “‘You still have this foundation of friendship and people around you, who adore you. And you’re going to find those fun moments in life again.'”
That support from friends and family re-ignited Reeve’s legacy of activism. He made appearances at the Democratic National Convention and the 68th Academy Awards in 1996, about a year after the accident. Matthew Reeve said watching his father address his industry peers at the Oscars was “one of (his) most proud moments.”
“It was just a production for him to get out of bed every morning, let alone get across the country and go out in public for the first time,” Matthew Reeve said. “It was a big deal. It was a big deal to him, but it was also a big deal to the entire disability community. We stayed up in London till like three in the morning to watch that live. It’s a fond memory.”
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Reeve also went on to launch what would become the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which is dedicated to advancing research into spiral cord injury and help individuals and families impacted by paralysis. It was his dad’s mission to find a cure, Matthew Reeve said, while his stepmother wanted to focus on improving the lives of paralyzed people and their families. The foundation and Reeve’s platform helped bring unprecedented attention and funding to spinal cord injury research.
Reeve even kept acting and realized his lifelong dream of directing with the 1997 HBO movie “In the Gloaming.” Reeve died in 2004 from heart failure at 52.
“There is a huge amount of great actors and actresses out there, where their filmography might be amazing and what they achieve on a cultural level might be amazing, but have they actually achieved anything really as a human that moves the needle for our society?” said filmmaker Ian Bonhote, who made the documentary with Peter Ettedgui. “And Chris has done both things.”
“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” will open in theaters on Friday, Oct. 11.
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