CNN
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New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu mentioned there’s an argument to be made that former President Donald Trump is “not the affect he thinks he’s” – and even the frontrunner of the Republican get together in 2024.
“When the previous president introduced that he’s operating for president every week after the election, everybody went, ‘OK,’” Sununu informed CNN’s Dana Bash. “He’s asserting he’s operating for president at his most politically weak level. Proper? He’s doing it from a degree of weak spot, from a degree of no matter his personal agenda is, nevertheless it’s form of only a blip on the radar.”
In that very same interview, Sununu made it clear that he thought the way forward for the GOP – “He’s finished his time. He’s finished his service. We’re shifting on” – was not Trump and even floated that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may very well be a stronger presidential contender.
“There’s an argument to be made that somebody like DeSantis might beat (Trump) in a major right this moment,” Sununu mentioned.
After all, Sununu himself has been the topic of 2024 hypothesis.
However he insisted to Bash, “I’m not enthusiastic about it proper now. I’m actually not.”
Saying he’s “not attempting to be coy,” Sununu, who simply gained reelection, says: “My focus proper now could be New Hampshire. It truly is, as a result of it needs to be. And I would like it to be.”
That mentioned, he’s not closing the door on a possible run for president.
“I’m open to all the things, after all. Look, I’m open to what is available in that door subsequent. I’m open to any alternative which may come down the highway. Not for me personally however for the state or the group,” Sununu mentioned.
In Harmony, the governor’s workplace is a stone’s throw from the secretary of state’s workplace, the place presidential candidates register to be on the poll for New Hampshire’s major.
“So in the event you had been to run for president, you’d stroll out that door, stroll down this hallway and all you must do is go proper there?” Bash requested.
Sununu jokingly replied, “Most likely simply do it on my lunch break in some unspecified time in the future. I gained’t inform anybody.”
Whether or not or not he jumps within the race, Sununu thinks governors, normally, are suited to run for president, primarily based on their govt management expertise.
“I believe numerous us are governors that will run, and I believe as governors, all of us need to see a governor run and achieve success. Governors are executives. I all the time say the Senate, US Senate and Congress has its place, however they don’t have govt management expertise,” he mentioned.
As for the previous president, Sununu doesn’t doubt Trump might nonetheless win the Republican nomination, although he sees him at a degree of political weak spot. Nevertheless, Sununu doesn’t suppose Trump’s candidacy will deter anybody from operating.
“He’s not at a degree of political power proper now. I don’t suppose it’s going to be going up. I believe, sadly for the previous president, it’s solely in all probability a gradual downward spiral from right here. May he nonetheless win the nomination? Completely. Let’s not idiot ourselves of that. However he’s not going to maintain anyone out of this race,” Sununu mentioned.
Not like different Republicans, the New Hampshire governor has not shied away from criticizing Trump. But he nonetheless escapes Trump’s well-known counterpunch. Sununu addressed how he established an easy relationship with Trump and his administration from the start of his presidency.
“Early on when he turned president, we made it actually clear each with him, we had a relationship and with the White Home that look, If he does issues that deserve credit score, I’ll be the primary one to face up and provides him credit score,” Sununu mentioned. “However when you’ve gotten a tone or one thing that I disagree with or he says issues or does issues I disagree with, I’m going to say that, too.”
Being in politics runs in Sununu’s household: He’s the 82nd governor of New Hampshire, whereas his father, John, was the seventy fifth. His older brother, John E. Sununu, represented New Hampshire as a Republican within the Home and Senate from 1997 to 2009.
The state home halls he ran by way of as a child are the place he now leads the Granite State.
“It’s the identical place, all the things’s actually the identical. The portraits are possibly slightly completely different, or they’ve upgraded the furnishings, I suppose, slightly bit. However no, it’s actually the identical place,” Sununu mentioned.
In 1989, when Sununu began highschool, his father turned the White Home chief of employees to President George H. W. Bush.
“I keep in mind strolling into my freshman yr, and children are sitting form of at their lockers, early within the morning, ready for sophistication to start out. They usually’re studying The Washington Publish,” Sununu informed Bash. “Provided that my dad or federal coverage was on the entrance of numerous these discussions, it simply made it very awkward. Very robust time.”
It turned particularly robust when his father turned embroiled in controversy, ultimately resigning from the Bush White Home in 1991.
“If something, that’s the place I mentioned, ‘Look, I’m by no means doing this political factor,’” Sununu mentioned.
Nevertheless it was truly his mom, Nancy, who impressed him to get into politics.
“My mother was on the varsity board, I believe, earlier than my dad even bought concerned in politics. That was actually my intro to politics. My mother would carry us over to the library, Kelly Library in Salem, New Hampshire, and I’d sit on the ground and colour whereas the varsity board assembly was happening, within the backside of the library,” the governor mentioned.
Sununu – the seventh of eight kids – is elevating three youngsters of his personal along with his spouse, Valerie, in Newfields, New Hampshire.
