Vice President hopeful Doug Burgum downplays Trump’s ‘Gestapo’ coup against Biden, upholds 2020 election result

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum confirmed that former President Donald Trump compared President Biden’s administration to the Nazi Gestapo during a donor retreat Saturday, but downplayed it.

“It was a brief, in-depth comment on a topic that wasn’t really central to what he was talking about,” Burgum, 67, told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I think…a majority of Americans feel that the trial he’s in now is politically motivated.”

The Gestapo was an infamous secret police force in Nazi Germany that ruthlessly targeted Jews and critics of Adolf Hitler.

“These people are running a Gestapo administration,” Trump said during the closed-door retreat, NBC News reported. “And that’s the only thing they have.” And that’s the only way they can win, in their opinion.

Biden-Harris 2024 spokesperson James Singer quickly condemned Trump.

“Trump is once again making despicable and insulting comments about the Holocaust, while attacking law enforcement, celebrating political violence and threatening our democracy,” he said in a statement.

Burgum, 67, whose name is being circulated as a possible vice presidential candidate, said it would be a “travesty of justice” if Trump, 77, ends up being convicted in his ongoing trial in Manhattan on charges alleged falsification of documents, attributing this to a “commercial misrepresentation.”

The former president faces 34 counts in a case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office alleges Trump falsified documents to hide cash payments distributed to suppress negative stories about him during the 2016 elections.

“It’s not illegal to pay people for nondisclosure agreements,” he added.

“The outcome of this trial is not going to change the minds of many people. This could actually, in some ways, help President Trump, because it reinforces the idea that the Biden administration is willing to use the law to try to attack a political opponent.

Burgum unsuccessfully fought for the 2024 GOP nod before dropping out late last year.

At the Republican National Committee’s spring retreat in Palm Beach on Saturday, Trump gathered with many prominent Republicans who generated buzz during the veepstakes. The event was widely seen as a test for potential contenders.

Asked about the possibility of Trump becoming vice president, Burgum kept the door open but sought to temper expectations.

“Maybe there’s a list of 50 people. If I appear there, who will know? But that’s not why I’m supporting the president right now,” he said.

Burgum also claimed that Biden, 81, won the 2020 election, but cautioned that he believed there were “irregularities.”

“I believe Joe Biden won the 2020 election, but I also believe…because of COVID, there were a lot of irregularities, because we changed a bunch of rules in some places, in some precincts , in some states,” he said. .

Trump has long peddled dubious claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” and “rigged” against him, but there is no evidence that massive voter fraud deprived him of victory.

But Burgum alluded to grievances about how some states like Pennsylvania changed their election procedures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I look forward to next January, when Vice President Harris will certify the election of Donald Trump,” he added.