If there was one thing that was clear during Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate, it was that co-moderator Dana Perino did not want to hear from Doug Burgum.
Throughout the chaotic two-hour event, which featured the GOP candidates desperately trying to draw attention to themselves to gain traction on Donald Trump’s commanding lead, the North Dakota governor repeatedly found himself hopelessly shouting from the side of the stage to no avail.
Unfortunately for Burgum, he never even got a chance to debut an awful new nickname for Trump or fire off any cringeworthy jokes because the Fox News anchor was there to tell him to shut up.
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Early on in the debate, Perino set the tone. Following a question to biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Burgum jumped in to say that the moderators “asked a question about childcare and nobody answered the question.” After the governor spoke for a few seconds, Perino cut him off.
“Sir, we will get you some questions, but you’re going to have to let us move on. We are going to the border next,” she declared.
Those questions, though, were far and few for Burgum, who ended up with the least amount of speaking time of the seven candidates on the stage.
Following a heated back-and-forth which featured South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley saying Ramaswamy made her “feel a little dumber,” Burgum once again tried to get a word in edgewise, only for Perino to threaten to take away his ability to speak.
“I am the only person on the stage that has a career in technology,” the governor exclaimed, asking if he could return to the moderator’s original question about artificial intelligence.
“Sir, we’ll have to cut your mic, and I don’t want to do that. I don’t,” the Fox host fired back.
Perino’s dismissiveness of Burgum didn’t stop there, either.
Towards the end of the evening, the longshot candidate thought he saw an opening after former Vice President Mike Pence was asked about domestic oil production. That was not the case, however.
“As the only person leading an energy state, can I answer the energy question?” Burgum wondered.
“No!” Perino shouted before quickly turning her attention to Haley.
