NBC Meet the Depressed host Kristen Welker tried to put GOP vice presidential hopeful Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) in a corner with some of former President Donald Trump’s statements as expressed in the recent presidential primary. Far from achieving her gotcha attempt, she instead spewed some lies of her own.

Watch the exchange as aired on NBC’s Meet the Press:

NBC MEET THE PRESS

6/30/24

10:27 AM

DOUG BURGUM: Four years ago, when we ended up with the current ticket on the Democrat side, that was this grand devil's bargain of “everybody drop out, we're going with these two”. Then, the biggest lie that has been foisted on the American public was seen on Thursday night. People can't unsee what they saw. What they saw was, we've been told by the White House, two weeks ago the White House was attacking journalists, including your friends, saying that no, you can't say these stories about that Joe Biden isn't capable of serving right now. And then all of America saw it. And you know who else saw it? 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 that he's not capable of serving.

KRESTEN WELKER: Well, there's not proof of that, but Governor, let me just ask you about the debate and a little bit more of what we saw. By one count, Donald Trump made more than 30 false claims during that debate. I want to play something you told my colleague Chuck Todd on this broadcast last year, take a look.

CHUCK TODD: You ever lied in politics?

BURGUM: No.

TODD: That you know of? You don’t believe you’ve ever lied?

BURGUM: No.

TODD: You feel like you've always told the truth as you understood it?

BURGUM: Absolutely. That's how I was raised and how I've gone forward.

WELKER: As someone who is on Donald Trump's short list to be his vice presidential nominee, do you think he should stop saying things that are not true?

BURGUM: I think the whole manufactured thing this morning of -- that Donald Trump has said something that he hasn't said before, I mean, everything that he said on Thursday night he's been saying before. I mean, so this isn't --

WELKER: But this- is not manufactured, Governor.

BURGUM: This is not news.

WELKER: But this is not manufactured, Governor. I mean, just to say a few: he said that Democrats want to kill infants after birth. That's not true. He again lied about widespread fraud. Not true. He lied about his comments after Charlottesville. Should he be truthful with the American people if he wants to lead this country?

BURGUM: Well, it’s…

WELKER: Especially given what you just said that YOU never lie. That’s YOUR standard, Governor.

There is what clumsy Alinkyism looks like on TV, this digging up of some footage in order to apply Rule #4 (hold the enemy to their own rules) with Burgum. But in fact these things were true. 

In order to accept Welker’s premise on abortion as true, one has to concede that Democrats do not want to “kill infants after birth”, or more specifically, provide lifesaving care to abortion survivors. This is disproved by the widely-circulated video of former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam discussing what should happen to abortion survivors, which Trump alluded to in the debate. 

Likewise election results, for which there is still litigation ongoing. And, at least in Pennsylvania, reasonable people agree that the state Supreme Court should not have overruled the State Legislature and imposed universal mail-in ballots or dictated they be counted in violation of state law. 

But the most egregious lie is Welker saying that what Trump said about Charlottesville at the debate is untrue. After sitting on it for seven years, Snopes officially debunked the “good people on both sides” hoax. Trump was, in fact, “exonerated”.

But the most outrageous bit of hackery is Welker waving off national security concerns now that Biden’s debate performance is public proof evident of an obvious and ongoing cognitive decline. There is, in fact, evidence of that.

Welker seems unaware of the shift that Biden’s performance has triggered, and she is still operating as though the Regime Media were in the Before Times. And like Biden, she has little time to adjust to the new landscape.