New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (R) joked on Friday that Americans are watching the race for the White House between President Biden and former President Trump like a “reality show” ahead of next week’s debate between the two.
“I think one of the challenges we have is that unfortunately right now many Americans are viewing this entire election like a reality TV show,” Sununu said. said on Friday “They want to see if Trump gets aggressive and loses the top spot, and they want to see if Biden has a senior moment,” he told NewsNation’s “Cuomo.”
Sununu pointed to “challenges” that CNN debate hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash could face in response to this view.
“I think they’re going to do a great job, but they have to make it substantive, right?” he said.
The CNN presidential debate is scheduled for next Thursday and is expected to be a key moment in the presidential race.
Trump and Biden, their respective parties’ presumptive nominees, met the requirements for a debate last week. Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other third-party candidates did not, meaning it is on track to be a true repeat of the 2020 presidential debates.
The New Hampshire governor said Friday he was surprised that the Trump team was taking the 2024 presidential campaign “seriously” and “much more professionally” than previous elections.
“I know they’ve been practicing and strategizing and I think that’s where this change in tone is coming from. They’re telling him we need to set expectations to get us out of this. It’s going to be a challenge, but it should be a pretty entertaining night.”
Trump currently leads Biden by just 0.6 percentage points, according to a national polling index from The Hill and Decision Desk HQ.
The race is close, with a Fox News poll last week showing Biden with a slim 50 percent lead and a two-point lead over the former president.
The former president and his allies suggested last week that they would dismiss any strong debate performances by Biden as fake, and floated the unfounded claim that if Biden did well it was because he was using some kind of performance-enhancing drug.
The allegations come after Trump and his allies sought to downplay Biden’s well-received State of the Union address delivered earlier this year, as some Republicans sought to portray the incumbent as a frail and confused old man.
Commenting on Biden’s State of the Union address, Sununu said the president was “full of energy” and argued the Trump campaign may refrain from criticizing Biden next week.
“He gave a speech in the middle of the night, an hour and a half, with the kind of energy that people talked about the next day. He didn’t have a senior moment,” Sununu said. “If that’s the only story, then obviously you have to start tampering with it, but obviously he [Trump] We’re talking about taking it more seriously.”
Sununu had previously supported the presidential bid of former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, whose candidacy has now been suspended, but said in March he would support Trump for the Republican nomination, while maintaining his previous criticism.
NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.
