Podcast: Congressman Cramer Says Heitkamp’s Vote Against Abortion Was “More Like North Korea Than North Dakota”
The full audio of today’s radio show is below. You can tune in weekdays from 12-2pm on WDAY 970 AM and 93.1 FM in the Fargo area or subscribe to the podcast and have the audio delivered directly to your device daily.
Congressman Kevin Cramer was on today for his weekly open phones segment, taking questions from the audience, and one of those questions came from Twitter:
How is a party that has such strong control in the state unable to find a candidate capable of beating Heidi Heitkamp (including yourself). The woman literally Hi-fives colleagues after voting down abortion legislation?
— Rick Mathern (@rickmathern) February 7, 2018
Cramer said Heitkamp owes an explanation for what happened.
[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]”I’ve not been this blunt about it before, but since you brought it up…when you act more like North Korea than North Dakota you’ve got a problem that you had better start explaining,” he said. “Celebrating doing something that not more than six or seven other countries that would even allow, and the few them that do are North Korea and Vietnam, you just can’t hardly make it up.”[/mks_pullquote]
“I’ve not been this blunt about it before, but since you brought it up…when you act more like North Korea than North Dakota you’ve got a problem that you had better start explaining,” he said. “Celebrating doing something that not more than six or seven other countries that would even allow, and the few them that do are North Korea and Vietnam, you just can’t hardly make it up.”
“It was a bad thing to get caught doing whether it was a celebratory hand gesture or a high five or what,” he continued.
As to the part where the listener questioned by Republicans have struggled to find challengers for Heitkamp, “It’s a lot harder thing to do running for the U.S. Senate than serving in the U.S. Senate,” Cramer said.
Cramer also spoke about the recently announced budget deal in the Senate.
Public Service Commissioner Brian Kroshus was on the program as well today. He was appointed by Governor Doug Burgum last year to finish out former Commissioner Brian Kalk’s unexpired term, and now state law requires that Kroshus be on the ballot to win the right to finish the last two years of that six-year term.
Democrat Casey Buchmann (who will be on the show tomorrow) is challenging Kroshus. “For far too long, the public has been sitting on the sidelines of the Public Service Commission,” he told the Bismarck Tribune. He also said the PSC doesn’t say no enough.
“The oil industry always gets yes,” he is quoted as saying.
Kroshus called these remarks “extremely inaccurate.”
“We have hearings around the state,” he said adding that he makes his cell phone number available publicly so that members of the public can call him.
As for saying no, “The siting process is about the rule of law,” Kroshus said. “As a regulatory body it’s not about our personal preference,” he added.
Here’s the full audio:
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