Chuck Todd proves once again he's very bad at his job as he allows North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum to pretend he's some sort of moderate while discussing the 6 week abortion ban he signed in his state. Todd opened up his show talking about the different "culture war issues" various Republican presidential candidates are running on, and he's part of how he described Burgum prior to the start of the interview:

He’s a 66-year-old former software executive and two-term governor. And yes he is self funding much of his presidential campaign right now. In April, Burgum signed a law that did ban abortion at six weeks and he has signed eight bills into law that have been pushed by his conservative legislature that limits the rights of transgender North Dakotans. But at the same time, he is arguing that Republicans will do better in 2024 if they focus solely on pocket-book issues.

Yeah, that's some centrist there. Later during the segment, Todd specifically asked Burgum about the abortion ban he signed, and allowed him to get away with pulling the "both sides" routine and call Democrats extremists who want to kill babies right before they're born. They don't. They just don't want to force women who have problem pregnancies to choose between their own life and health and that of a fetus that has some fatal abnormality, but Chuck Todd didn't bother to tell him that, of course. Todd also allowed Burgum to pretend he's somehow moderate on the issue of abortion because he claims he wouldn't sign a federal ban.

CHUCK TODD: So let's take abortion, the six week ban. A voter wants to know what your position is on abortion. I understand the law doesn't sound like this is the law you would've designed, but it's the law you signed. So, what is your position on abortion?

GOV. DOUG BURGUM: Well, my position is that I support the Dobbs decision, and this is the decision that should be left to the states. And what's going to pass in North Dakota is not ever going to pass in California and New York, and wouldn't even pass in the state of Minnesota. I – that's why I'm on the record saying that I would not sign a federal abortion ban.

CHUCK TODD: You would not sign any federal legislation at all, whether it set the line at 24 weeks or six weeks?

GOV. DOUG BURGUM: No, I wouldn't, because it should be left to the states. Now, I think people can say Republicans are extreme, I personally think that having a late term abortion, having an abortion one day before a child is born, that's abhorrent to me. Some states allow that. I think that's extreme. But states get to decide where they want to fit on that spectrum. The states –

CHUCK TODD: Where are you on that?

GOV. DOUG BURGUM: The states created the federal government, not the other way around.

CHUCK TODD: I understand. Where are you on that?

GOV. DOUG BURGUM: Where I'm at is I believe in states' rights, and I believe that the president of the United States has got a defined set of things they're supposed to work on, and it's not every culture war topic. These are things that are left to the state. As president, things that you're supposed to focus on, things like the economy, like energy policy, which is completely tied to national security, and part of national security is the border. And these are things that the president right now, President Biden, has completely abdicated his responsibility on. Every state’s become a border state, 110,000 overdose deaths in this country last year, again. That’s – and that's a statistic, but that's 330 a day.

Yeah, no culture war issues, as he tosses out some red meat to the base on exactly that. Todd then asked him if he was comfortable with "legislating when a doctor can get involved and when somebody can get a medical intervention on their own" and the "government setting those limits," and Burgum responded by telling Todd he's all about "freedom and liberty" don't ya' know. Yeah, "freedom" unless you're a woman who wants control over her own life, health and reproductive decisions.

GOV. DOUG BURGUM: Well, I'm comfortable with those battles happening at the state level because if people don't like them they've got an opportunity to get engaged and try to change that. At the federal level it's not anything I'm going to be pushing because I believe in freedom and liberty. And I believe that if we believe that as a party then we have to think long and hard about if we believe in freedom and liberty, then why are we trying to restrict certain things as a party? We should be the freedom and liberty party and we should believe in the states' rights party. And you have to have some consistency around that.

Yeah, they're consistent alright. Consistently wrong when it comes to abortion and a host of other issues, and wrong when it comes to public opinion as well. That won't stop the likes of Todd from propping this guy and others up as some magical "centrist" GOP unicorn that's going to save us all from Trump.