New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) lashed out at “Democratic elites” in an interview Friday, blaming leaders for President Biden’s poor performance in the recent debate.
Sununu highlighted the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) decision earlier in the cycle to skip the New Hampshire primary and focus first on South Carolina.
“Let’s remember this is not Joe Biden’s fault,” he said NewsNation now host Connell McShane. “This is the Democratic elite who said we’re going to try to skip the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire and we’re going to crown Joe Biden when we know he has a problem.”
“They had their chance, all right, and that’s what you get when they try to basically play games instead of letting a good primary process happen,” the governor added.
His comments refer to the DNC’s decision to hold its first primaries in a state considered more representative of the party’s diverse electorate, following appeals from state and local Democrats. Sununu and other New Hampshire politicians criticized the president for the decision.
Despite not appearing on the ballot in the Granite State, Biden was declared the winner of the primary through a write-in effort. Even so, the state did not grant him any delegates.
Sununu praised former President Trump’s performance during Thursday night’s debate in Atlanta, saying the former president “did exactly what he had to do” in the debate.
“He showed competence. He did exactly what he had to do last night without being too arrogant,” he said on Friday. “He was clearly the adult in the room, Biden looked absolutely horrible.”
Sununu — one of the last Republican governors in the Northeast, which has become a Democratic stronghold — originally supported former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley in the primary. Haley dropped out of the race in March, paving the way for Trump to become the presumptive Republican nominee.
Despite calling Trump a “loser” in the past, Sununu signaled that he would vote for the Republican ticket regardless of who led the vote.
In Friday’s interview, the governor added that while he had called on the Democratic Party to replace Biden at the top of the ticket last year, he believed it was now too late to do so.
His comments came after Biden’s shaky performance in Thursday’s debate sparked panic within the Democratic Party, along with discussion over whether the incumbent should resign and allow an open convention in August. Biden and his campaign have rejected the calls, saying the president is not going anywhere.
Sununu called calls for an open convention a “stupid idea.”
“It goes to the nominee,” Sununu said. “Who’s going to step in with about four months of having to raise half a billion dollars? It’s hard to know that you could be the nominee, but that you will probably lose as much, if not worse, than Biden trying to get his name out there.
But, he added, if Biden “can show strength and come out competent in the second debate, perhaps Americans will put the first debate in the rearview mirror and can hit the reset button.”
At the start of Thursday’s debate, Biden had a hoarse voice and his team quickly explained that it was a cold. During his rally in North Carolina on Friday, Biden’s voice seemed to have returned to normal, his energy was high and he didn’t stumble over his words as much.
Asked by McShane about the turn of events, Sununu dismissed it, giving credit to the teleprompter.
“When he has a teleprompter, 80 percent of the time Biden can keep it under control and read from the teleprompter,” he said, adding “So I think that’s one of the most disconcerting things, is that this is what we saw last night is clearly the real Joe Biden.
“I think this makes a lot of people nervous and makes a lot of people start to align the dots,” continued the governor. “That’s why we’re in the economic crisis, it’s true. This is why we have an immigration crisis that is out of control.”
Sununu added: “Now everything makes sense to the American people and they just want change.”
NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.
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