Burgum highlights national security in Iowa campaign stop

(CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA) — North Dakota Republican Governor Doug Burgum, a candidate vying for the Republican nomination for President of the United States, made a campaign stop at Iowa Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson’s third annual BBQ Bash on Sunday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. One of the topics Burgum touched on was national security, a staple of his campaign since announcing his candidacy.

Burgum said the federal government “does have responsibility around national security.”

“National security includes border security,” he said. “And right now, Biden is complete deriliction of duty on the Southern Border.”

Burgum said 110,000 overdose deaths happened in 2022, and 107,000 in 2021.
“That’s 300 Americans a day are dying, 70 percent of those are fentanyl poisonings, that’s coming from China,” he said. “We’re taking mass casualties because of our open border. We have got to stop that.”

The topic of national security comes ahead of Burgum’s visit, this week, to Texas, where he will visit North Dakota National Guard soldiers supporting efforts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. He will visit approximately 100 members of the Wahpeton-based 188th Engineer Company who began a 30-day mission this week in support of Operation Lone Star. Burgum also will visit with the approximately 125 members from the 1st Battalion, 112th Aviation Regiment who are deployed on federal status in support of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).