About Chris Sununu and pearl-clutching

Or, what does Joan Jett have to do with Sununu?

“An' I don't give a damn 'bout my bad reputation. Oh no, no, no, no not me, oh no, no, no, no not me.” —Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.

Read all the pearl-clutching about Chris Sununu: “a Mountebank, a Coward, or a Fool” says Jonathan Last; “the absolute worst,” rants (his word) Chris Cillizza. What has the governor of New Hampshire done?

Governor Chris Sununu of New Hampshire speaking with attendees at the American Conservation Coalition's 2022 Summit at the JW Marriott Washington, D.C. in Washington, D.C., Photo credit: Gage Skidmore, Surprise, Arizona

Here’s Sununu, asked if he’s supporting the Republican nominee for president: “ I'll be supporting -- I'll be supporting that candidate (ph) for sure.”

Here’s Sununu again: “Yeah. Look, nobody should be shocked that the Republican governor is supporting the Republican president.”

Both quotes came from an interview on ABC News “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” Except one quote was from July 30, 2023, interviewed by Jonathan Karl and the other on April 14, 2024, interviewed by Stephanopoulos. Gov. Sununu is nothing if not consistent that he’s a Republican, but until Donald Trump won New Hampshire primary, he was absolutely and completely invested in keeping Trump from getting the Republican nomination.

And now that Trump is locked into the nomination, Sununu is being a realist, not an activist. The activists really don’t like that, and call him names. But like Joan Jett sang, Sununu doesn’t give a damn.

Last July, Sununu, who I said was usually the smartest man in the room, said this about Trump and his legal troubles:

Well, it's kind of the boy who cried wolf, right? I mean we’ve -- we've seen the indictments, one, two, three times. We expect more to come. The average voter right now just considers them all to be politically driven. And – and whether that was the intention of the Department of Justice or not, they’re -- they're allowing Donald Trump to play this victim card very, very well. But, ultimately, it – it doesn't -- it doesn't pan out. Six months from now it's going to be a very different story. I think the reality is that Donald Trump cannot actually win the vote in November of ‘24. He can get the nomination, but he can’t actually close the deal against Biden. So, if you’re going to support Trump, you've going to hand it to the Biden and Kamala Harris administration. That is not a good thing. And that’s why I think a lot of these other candidates are going to have an opportunity to surge.

Things have changed: “Six months from now it’s going to be a very different story,” Sununu said.

In the interview with Stephanopoulos (who I once called a “stain on journalism” for lying about his conflicts of interest regarding the Clintons money), the governor of the “live free or die” state said:

The average American just thinks it's more reality TV and prosecution of him at this point. He plays that victim card very, very well. His poll numbers only go up with this stuff. So to think that this is some sort of deal breaker, again, I'll go back to where I started where people are going to say, yep, if he's convicted I'm walking away. That's just not going to happen. At the end of the day, they want that culture change of the Republican Party, and if we have Trump as the standard bearer -- and the voters decided that's what they wanted, not what I wanted, but what the voters -- what the Republican voters wanted, he's going to be the standard bearer that we'll it take it if we have to. That's how badly America wants a culture change.

Stephanopoulos pressed:

STEPHANOPOULOS: So just to sum up, you would support him for president even if he is convicted in classified documents. You would support him for president even though you believe he contributed to an insurrection. You would support him for president even though you believe he's lying about the last election. You would support him for president even if he's convicted in the Manhattan case. I just want to say, the answer to that is yes, correct?

SUNUNU: Yes, me and 51 percent of America.

Sununu says the voters want Trump. There are many Republicans who don’t want Trump and won’t vote for him no matter what. I think that covers all the writers at this site. But there are people who aren’t tied to a political party who don’t look at things like we do. This is what Chris Sununu is talking about, and it’s what people like Chris Cillizza and Jonathan Last can’t understand because they carry all this head-knowledge around and it hurts them to try and see things from the perspective of folks who keep telling pollsters they prefer Trump to President Joe Biden.

The polls now show a narrowing, a “blue shift” and a cut in that lead, but I don’t think Sununu is wrong: 51 percent. Trump leads Biden 42% to 40.2%. Trump leads in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. Nearly 40% of voters say the country is on the “wrong track.”

I agree with David Thornton that we should not focus on one poll or one point in time, but the trend. The trend is “getting bluer.” But also, elections have patterns, like breathing in and out. If you look at the ups and downs of the race, you’ll see both candidates have peaks and valleys. What’s vitally important isn’t where they are now, but who is peaking in November, and who’s in a valley.

There’s a lot of territory between today and the election. There’s Trump on trial, which from what I have seen from the first day is a snooze-fest, and won’t hold voters’ attention. Sununu brought out that point—Trump plays the victim card and will be taken off the campaign trail.

Events, dear boy: there’s wars, the economy (interest rates are not coming down anytime soon, and may rise again, or inflation will continue to plague us), social turmoil, and division over so many issues that make predicting political winds difficult if not impossible. We can’t say for sure that the race will continue to get “bluer” or that Trump might squeak out a victory.

I’m pretty certain that we won’t see Trump in prison garb between now and November, but that’s—sadly (though many want it, it’s still sad as a nation to see it)—a distinct, though remote, possibility.

All of these things are reality, and they reflect what voters see in many of the battleground states. We know that Trump isn’t winning Virginia, or Delaware, or New York or California. I don’t even know if prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers will be able to seat a jury in Manhattan without a mistrial, because so many people hate the former president there. These are not the most important things. Chris Sununu hit on the most important things—events carry elections, especially close elections. This election is going to be close.

Nobody should be surprised that a Republican governor will support the Republican candidate. Even in Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp is careful to be far, far away from Trump when he’s in the state, you aren’t going to hear Kemp campaigning for Joe Biden. Pressing Sununu to denounce Trump, when he’s spent so much time in the past denouncing Trump, is just pearl-clutching. When Sununu denounced Trump before, he was doing it for another Republican in the race for the nomination. Now, he’s expected to denounce Trump in favor of Joe Biden. Who ever thought that’s a possibility?

There may not be a Republican Party as a home for displaced conservatives. Sununu has said as much. But there is still a Republican Party that fields candidates at the state, local, and federal level in Congress. Some think that party should be abandoned wholesale. But realists, like Sununu, who have run for office and remain popular, aren’t going to glom on to that message.

But pearl-clutchers are gonna clutch their pearls.