Sununu Walks Back Anti-Trump Comments: Will Support If He’s Nominee, Was Joking When He Called Trump ‘F***ing Crazy’
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) is one of the few potential 2024 GOP hopefuls willing to publicly criticize Donald Trump, but nonetheless on Thursday said he’d still back the former president should he be the party’s nominee.
Sununu was on CNN Newsroom Thursday afternoon and anchor Alisyn Camerota questioned him about some of the other expected GOP candidates, including former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In response to Camerota’s questions about whether he would be contributing to a “crowded field” that would pave the way for Trump to win the nomination again, Sununu replied that he recognized a crowded field was “problematic” and could indeed help Trump come out on top, but there was still a long way to go, a year before the New Hampshire primaries, and the issue was less “who gets in the race” than it was about needing “the discipline to get out of the race if it is not happening.”
“Do you commit to supporting the GOP nominee, whoever it it?” asked Camerota.
“Yes. I’m a Republican,” replied Sununu. “I’m going to support the Republican nominee because I can guarantee they’re better than any of the Democrats” who are likely to run.
“Even if it’s Donald Trump?” asked Camerota.
“Yeah,” said Sununu. “I don’t think it’s going to be Donald Trump but yeah, I’m going to support the Republican nominee, to be sure.”
Camerota brought up how Sununu had called Trump “effing crazy” at a dinner, referring to Sununu’s speech at the Gridiron Club in April 2022, in which he roasted the ex-president as “f*cking crazy.”
“Yeah, that was funny,” said Sununu. “It was a roast. It was a funny joke.” He added that he did not think that President Joe Biden would be the only nominee for the Democrats and there was still “a lot of politics to be played out.”
“Again, if you’re saying I wouldn’t support the nominee because I made a joke at a roast, it was a good joke,” he said. “I take pride in that, I got a lot of laughs.”
“It is a funny joke but, I mean, sometimes there’s a germ of truth to jokes,” said Camerota. “If what you feel, why would you support him?”
Sununu answered that he “made a lot of jokes” about “everybody,” including his own family, Biden, and former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. Too many politicians “take themselves so seriously, everyone has lost their sense of humor, there’s no sense of lightening the mood a little bit,” he said, and saying “something humorous or whatever doesn’t qualify or disqualify them from anything.”
He touted his own record in New Hampshire, saying he was “proud” of his state’s record — “We have no sales tax, we have no income tax, the lowest poverty rate, the most efficient government, number one in individual liberties” — and wanted to be a “model” for the rest of the country.
“It’s also generous to say you would support Donald Trump because he did not extend that same courtesy to you or any other candidate today,” Camerota mentioned.
“Are you surprised?” Sununu said with a laugh. “Donald Trump is about Donald Trump. I don’t think anybody should be shocked by that statement.”
Watch above via CNN.
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