Since Donald Trump won his only term in office, his appearances at the campaign rallies of other members of the GOP have been highly coveted. Trump has appeared at rallies for candidates who have both won and lost, but many Republican candidates found that, without Trump, a significant and rabid portion of the GOP base was uninterested in voting for them. As the January 6 investigations continue and Trump continues his own whining, they’re-so-unfair-to-me rallies, fewer Republican candidates seem interested in his help.
Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) placed some distance between himself and former President Donald Trump on Sunday morning, vehemently disagreeing with the disgraced ex-president’s pledge to pardon convicted Jan. 6 rioters if he get back to the White House in 2024https://t.co/iBX5pVpVbG
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) January 30, 2022
One such candidate is Republican candidate for governor Chris Sununu, who is running in New Hampshire. The state went to Biden in 2020, but not overwhelmingly, with just over seven points separating the two. Republicans in the state, however, did vote overwhelmingly for Trump, making Sununu’s statements about Trump a gamble.
In an interview on CNN’s State of the Union with Dana Bash, Sununu was asked about Trump’s statements at his own recent rally, when he said that “If I run and I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly, we will treat them fairly, and if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly.”
As reported by The Daily Beast, Sununu said:
‘Look, the folks that were part of the riots and, frankly, the assault on the U.S. Capitol have to be held accountable. There’s a rule of law. I don’t care whether you were part of burning cities and antifa in 2020 [or] you were storming the Capitol in 2021, everybody needs to be held accountable.’
This alone is giving aid or comfort to an insurrection within the meaning of the 14th Amendment, section 3. Trump is DISQUALIFIED from public office.
Trump says he would pardon Jan. 6 rioters if he runs and wins https://t.co/mLvnWoYxGt
— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) January 30, 2022
Later, Bash asked Sununu if he wanted Trump to go on the campaign trail with him for the upcoming 2022 governor’s race. Sununu balked at the idea, saying, “pf course not! Oh my goodness, no!”
‘I don’t need anyone to campaign with me. I’m a big believer that as a candidate you have to stand on your own two feet, you have to look your fellow citizens in the eye and you have to earn their votes as you, not as endorsements. Endorsements are fine, and all that kind of stuff.’
Tonight Trump toyed with inciting mobs to threaten officials of the criminal justice system, and suggested pardons for Jan. 6 lawbreakers (presumably higher-up conspirators as well as shock troops). His assault on the rule of law didn’t end when he left the WH. It’s ongoing.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) January 30, 2022
Sununu may be taking a chance by publicly saying he does not need Trump’s presence at his campaign rallies since the GOP voters still seem so much in Trump’s thrall, but it’s also a smart gamble. Other statements that Trump has made at recent rallies show that he’s learned nothing from the consequences of that January 6 insurrection attempt and that he’s more than willing to incite it once again, given the chance.
‘If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protests we have ever had in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere, because our country and our elections are corrupt.’
