Plain Talk

"Trump is the best President of my lifetime," Senator Kevin Cramer told me on this episode of Plain Talk. It's a statement he's made publicly many times, even after the ugly events in Washington D.C. on January 6. But Cramer is also critical of President Donald Trump. He has accused Trump of inciting the crowd before the riot, he criticized the president for his conduct during and after the riot, and he said Trump's recent address, finally conceding the election and calling for peace, was tardy. When asked if Donald Trump, after the riot at the capitol, is an effective messenger for Republicans and his movement Cramer said, "I doubt that he is, quite honestly." Should President Trump be impeached and removed from office? That's "exactly the sort of activity that is not conducive to healing this nation," he said. He also believes that Trump does not meet the requirements for removal by his cabinet under the 25th amendment. The text of that amendment states that the President can be removed from office when the Vice President and a majority of cabinet members feel that he or she is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. What really seems to be frustrating Cramer is that the events at the end of Trump's term in office are going to overshadow the accomplishments on tax policy, energy and agriculture regulation, and foreign policy that he's proud to have helped the President enact. "As Republicans distance themselves from Donald Trump the person we have to hold onto his ideas," Cramer said.

Rob and Jay talk about the latest coronavirus news.

Rob and Jay talk about North Dakota's new mask mandate.

Rob and Jay talk election results, Twitter bans, and District 8 controversy.

As the votes continue to be counted, President Donald Trump, which no real evidence, is making accusations of a fraudulent election. How does North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer, a staunch Trump supporter, feel about it? "I don't think it helps him," Cramer said on this episode of Plain Talk. "Do I condone everything President Trump says? No," Cramer also said. But he also said he understands the President's feelings. "I don't blame President Trump for his level of frustration," Cramer said citing what, at this point, seems to have been some wildly inaccurate public polling and some dubious vote-counting procedures in states like Pennsylvania. Cramer also spoke about some state-level politics, weighing in on the controversy in District 8 where Governor Doug Burgum, lawmakers, local party leaders, and the Democrats are all squabbling over who should get to sit in a legislative seat voters elected a dead person to.

Who will win the election? Rob and Jay discus.

Former North Dakota Governor Ed Schafer does not support Measure 2. He does not believe the Legislature should get a chance to overturn a ballot-box vote to enact a constitutional amendment. Measure 2 would amend the state constitution to make it so that constitutional measures approved at the ballot box would also have to be approved by both houses of the Legislature. If one or both houses voted against the amendment, it would go back to a second statewide balloting allowing voters to overturn the Legislature's veto. I don't agree with Ed, and on this episode of Plain Talk we debate the issue, but we did find one area of agreement. Whatever happens with Measure 2 next month, it's clear the status quo in North Dakota's initiated measure process is broken. Schafer and I spoke of potential policy curatives ranging from finance reform for initiated measure campaigns to bans on paid signature collectors to limiting measures to one policy change each.

"Trump has brought the rural voice back into play," Shelley Lenz told me on this episode of Plain Talk. Lenz is the Democratic-NPL candidate for governor, challenging Republican incumbent Doug Burgum, and while she clearly doesn't like Trump overall, she is critical of her own party for not paying enough attention to the priorities of rural Americans. "Urban Democrats are misinformed," she told me. Much of our conversation, as you might expect, focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and Burgum's response to it. Lenz says Burgum has "failed" by, among other things, not paying enough attention to the advice from medical experts. "He's not a doctor," Lenz said. She also spoke about her "homegrown prosperity" platform that would seek to promote more investment in North Dakota.

Is it even worth debating a mask mandate anymore? Rob and Jay discuss.

This episode of Plain Talk was intended to be a conversation with both of North Dakota's candidates for Superintendent. Sadly, the incumbent, Kirsten Baesler, opted not to participate, claiming she didn't have enough time to make it work, though she did offer me a one-on-one interview later in the week. Go figure. The challenger, Brandt Dick, did offer his time, and our conversation covered everything from why Baesler shouldn't get another term to test scores for North Dakota students to school choice. "She thinks that she...has it in the bag," Dick said of Baesler's decision not to participate in our discussion, alluding to other situations where he says Baesler has declined to engage him. "She's concerned to enter into a debate." Dick says one of the biggest challenges facing North Dakota right now is an on-going transition in the way local schools are funded. The new formula was launched under former Governor Doug Burgum, but the state and school districts are still grappling with an equitable distribution of funds. He also criticized Baesler for failing to talk about how to transition North Dakota students back to classrooms in places where that's not happening because of the pandemic. "I have yet to hear her say...that we need to transition to get education back face-to-face," Dick told me. How as North Daktoa's students been performing under Baesler? "As a state we've been going the wrong way" on test scores, Brandt said, though he acknowledged that scores aren't the only metric for student success and that the superintendent's role in them is limited. Dick says he supports the idea of school choice for things like homeschooling and private schools, and that he actually started his education career at a religious school in Bismarck, but he has concerns about sending public dollars to private institutions which don't have an obligation to accept all students, including those with special needs. He also says schools could do better in guiding students into what happens after graduation. "For a while we were pushing too many kids into college," Dick said, adding that he'd like to see students given options like technical schools and other paths to success. What's important for schools to instill in students, in a modern economy where lifetime careers are increasingly not the norm, is "grit" Dick said. An ability to be respectful and resilient.