Burgum Files Candidacy In New Hampshire, Denounced Trump Statements on Israel War

CONCORD, N.D. (KVRR/AP/CNN) — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has officially filed his candidacy for the 2024 New Hampshire primary.

The Republican thanked the people of New Hampshire for picking presidents as the first in the nation primary.

Candidates have until October 27 to sign up, and dozens are expected to do so in part because it’s relatively cheap and easy.

They need to meet the basic requirements to be president, fill out a one-page form and pay the filing fee.

While he was there, Burgum commented on former President Trump’s criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying he was caught unprepared.

“That there are people that don’t value life that are willing to do atrocities that are unthinkable and that’s what we need to focus on is making them, you know, Americans died,” said Burgum.

“Americans have been kidnapped.  As the leader, that’s what the focus should be on.”

Burgum compared Trump’s comments to a foreign ally criticizing the U.S. in the aftermath of 9/11 or the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Trump at a rally Wednesday night said Netanyahu “let us down” just before the U.S. killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in 2020. He also said Israeli leaders needed to “step up their game” and referred to Hezbollah, the group Israel fears may launch a large-scale attack from the country’s north, as “very smart.”

“Now is not the time to be attacking our ally,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of Trump’s 2024 rivals, echoing denunciations from the White House and elsewhere. More than 2,700 people are dead on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides, and Hamas is believed to have taken around 150 hostages.

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said, “We cannot accept a single message to any of the enemies of Israel” that U.S. and Israeli leaders are at odds.

New Hampshire, with its state law requiring its primaries to be held first, is defying the Democratic National Committee’s new primary calendar which calls for South Carolina to kick off voting on February 3.