New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu on Wednesday turned down the chance to revoke his support for his party’s presidential nominee after his former White House chief of staff said he is a “fascist” who has expressed a desire for “the kind of generals that Hitler had.”
Instead, Sununu accepted Donald Trump‘s admiration for the Nazi leader as “par for the course.”
On CNN News Central, anchor Kate Bolduan asked the Trump-supporting Republican governor whether John Kelly’s damning comments to The New York Times changed how he feels about backing Trump.
ADVERTISEMENT
“No,” Sununu said directly. He then claimed that while he respects Kelly, the final weeks of the election will have “salacious things” being said.
“Look, I respect Gen. Kelly. I think he’s great. He has a long-term relationship with the president. You know, when you get into these final weeks, it’s all about results. So of course you‘re going to get salacious things said and all that. And I‘m not taking away the general’s conversation with the former president,” he said, before shifting gears by warning about “ultra-liberal extremism” rather than the topic at hand: Trump’s character and fitness to lead.
“At the end of the day... independents want results. They don’t want that kind of ultra-liberal extremism. They want to be told the truth,” Sununu said with a straight face, “and to get their cost of living down. That’s where voters are going to go.”
“We’ve heard a lot of extreme things about Donald Trump, from Donald Trump,” he continued. “It’s kind of par for the course... Unfortunately, with a guy like that, it’s kind of baked-in to the vote at this point.”
But Bolduan pressed the issue, asking Sununu if he’s really OK with supporting someone like Trump given the comments he’s made.
Sununu tried the near-impossible task of threading the needle by saying that anyone liking Hitler is wrong, but that he will still support a candidate who does because of “how bad” things are with a Democratic administration.
“Look, I don’t think anyone should be OK with statements like that, of course,” Sununu said. “And if there’s ever anyone you don’t want any sort of comparison to, it’s Hitler and all of that sort of thing.”
“There’s nobody in America that likes to hear that conversation about a potential future president of the United States, but that’s how bad things are,“ he claimed. ”That’s how bad the Harris campaign has run things. That’s how bad her message is, and that’s how bad the last three-and-a-half years has been for a lot of Americans.”
Sununu also groused that “the media likes to talk about the salacious stuff”–as if it’s not a wholly relevant and important story that the man who’s a coinflip from the presidency just so happens to have fascist aims.
