Key facts
- Video posted to X shows TMZ's Charlie Cotton asking Burgum for one question at the airport.
- Cotton said the security guard was banging into him and had touched him too many times.
- A Department of the Interior spokesperson said the video shows the detail's actions followed protocol.
- Burgum did not respond to Cotton's questions in the video and left in a car.
A TMZ reporter confronted security for Interior Secretary Doug Burgum at Washington Reagan National Airport on November 9, 2026, in an exchange captured on video and posted to the social platform X.
In the video, TMZ's Charlie Cotton stands next to Burgum holding a camera and asks for one question. Burgum shakes his head while looking at his phone and then walks away. As Cotton keeps pressing, a member of Burgum's security detail steps between the two, and Cotton is heard saying, "Please don't touch me, sir." The guard says he is "not touching" Cotton, who replies that the guard is "banging into me."
Cotton continues to follow Burgum with the guard in front of him and asks whether Trump, described in the question as a lame duck, would be ineffective. Burgum does not respond. As the group exits the airport, Cotton alleges the guard has "been touching me far too many times" and says, "I'm not a threat at all, so you can't touch me like that." Burgum then gets into a car and the guard closes the door.
A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior said in a statement emailed to The Hill on November 9 that Burgum's "security detail takes their mission seriously and conducts themselves professionally 24/7, 365. Full stop." The spokesperson said the video clearly shows the detail's actions followed protocol.