Burgum acknowledges lack of name recognition in dodging Trump questions

North Dakota Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Doug Burgum pointed to his lack of name recognition on Sunday when asked why he dodges questions about former President Trump’s mounting legal battles. 

“Everybody’s at a different place,” Burgum said Sunday in an interview with NBC’s “Meet The Press” anchor Chuck Todd. “If I had 100 percent national name recognition, if I’d run for president before, if I was living in a major media market and everybody in the country knew me, that’d be a different spot.” 

Burgum has faced criticism on the campaign trail for often avoiding answering questions related to Trump and his criminal charges. When Todd asked Burgum if he believes Trump made a concerted effort to overturn the election results in 2020, Burgum pointed to the "entire cable news industry" and "social media industry" trying to answer such question, and switched to discussing the upcoming GOP primary debate.

“But I know from the private sector, when we were launching our little company that we then built over a period of time into a billion dollar company, you don’t start out by attacking the market share leader,” Burgum said. 

Using the private sector metaphor, Burgum said he does not “have the basis to launch” such attacks on the former president. 

“Like I said, there will be segment after segment on every channel this morning, all the pundits lined up,” Burgum said. “And I’m not running for pundit, I’m running for president.” 

Burgum will take the debate stage Wednesday night in Milwaukee where he will face off against several other GOP presidential candidates. Trump reportedly has decided to skip the debate and instead sit for an interview with former Fox News prime time host Tucker Carlson.