New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu spent the past year criticizing his fellow Republican Donald Trump, saying repeatedly how Trump brought doom to the GOP and faced “numerous investigations and continues to peddle the conspiracy theory that he won the 2020 election,” as the governor wrote in a June 2023 column.
On Sunday, however, Sununu sought to let bygones be bygones—an insurrection, a potential criminal conviction, and continued election-denying be damned.
Sununu joined ABC’s This Week on Sunday, where moderator George Stephanopoulos pressed the governor on his about-face in supporting the twice-impeached former president. He noted how Sununu, who endorsed Nikki Haley in the primaries, said in January 2021 that Trump’s rhetoric and actions led to the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection and asked him how he could continue to support Trump despite that.
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“For me, it’s not about him as much as it is having a Republican administration, Republican secretaries, Republican rules, a sense where states’ rights come first, individual rights come first, and we’ll have a pro-business economy,” Sununu said. “We won’t have a cancel culture that has infiltrated across America. It’s not about Trump with me.”
Stephanopoulos contested that argument, noting that Trump would still be the president overseeing that Republican administration. He noted to Sununu that, by standing by his 2021 statement, he was supporting an insurrectionist.
“As does 51 percent of America, George,” he said.
Elsewhere, Sununu tried to deflect from his previous criticisms of Trump, including over his federal indictments. He admitted that his support for the indicted former president was more about politics than personal favoritism.
“Look, nobody should be shocked that the Republican governor is supporting the Republican president,” Sununu said.
Eventually, Stephanopoulos had enough of Sununu’s indifference toward Trump after his yearslong bashing of the former president.
“Just to sum up, you would support him for president even if he was convicted in classified documents,” Stephanopoulos started. “You would support him for president, even though you believe he contributed to an insurrection. You support him for president even though you believe he’s lying about the last election, you support him for president even if he’s convicted in the Manhattan case. I just wanna say, the answer to that is yes, correct?”
“Yeah, me and 51 percent of America,” Sununu responded.
“Governor, thanks for your time,” he said.
