Prominent North Dakota Democrats made a real "mess of things" when they took the extraordinary step of jettisoning their U.S. House candidate, Mark Haugen, in favor of independent candidate Cara Mund.

"They were very presumptuous about Cara," Cramer added, arguing that they don't know much about her outside of her views on abortion. He also argued that the move may inhibit future efforts to recruit candidates to the Democratic-NPL ticket.

"Now all they have to offer is disloyalty," Cramer said.

Mund's entrance into North Dakota's U.S. House race against incumbent Republican Kelly Armstrong was just one topic Cramer and I covered on this episode of Plain Talk.

We also discussed another independent candidate, Rick Becker, who is challenging incumbent John Hoeven, Cramer's colleague in the Senate. Cramer praised Becker as representing an important part of the NDGOP, but took a dim view of his chances. "I don't think he's going to do as well as he thinks he does," Cramer said.

Becker had promised to respect the vote of delegates at the NDGOP convention, where Hoeven won the party's endorsement, but has gone back on that promise to challenge Hoeven in the general election. Cramer said that move has hurt Becker. "I've talked to a number of Republican supporters of Rick Becker and they're disappointed," he said.

Cramer also spoke about getting banned by the Russian government, the European energy crisis brought on in no small part by the war in Ukraine and what Americans can do to help, President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness.

Want to get every episode of Plain Talk delivered directly to you? Consider subscribing, for free, on the podcast platform of your choice.

Forum Communications Company is proud to be a part of the Trust Project. Learn more at thetrustproject.org.