He doesn’t mince words.
Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu on Thursday criticized current and former governors who are “not liked by anybody,” claiming that Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo are disliked by other state leaders.
“Let’s be honest with you, nobody cares about Gavin,” Sununu said of the California Democrat. event At the Reagan Institute Education Summit in Washington, DC.
“Gavin is just a jerk. That’s the way he is,” he added. “It’s a real shame.”
Sununu, 49, said he used to get along well with Newsom but now even Democratic governors can’t stand him.
“They don’t say it out loud, but behind closed doors it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, look who’s coming,'” he said. “People are rolling their eyes.”
Newsom’s criticism came after Sununu described “most governors as good friends” and said that in his eight years leading New Hampshire, he was “maybe the second or third governor at most who really wasn’t liked by anybody and really didn’t care about anybody at all.”
The other is a former Democratic governor of New York.
“Andrew Cuomo. A total idiot. Nobody liked him,” Sununu said of the Empire State governor, who resigned in 2021 after a series of scandals.
Apparently the feeling is mutual.
“We’re glad they feel the same way about each other,” Cuomo’s spokesman, Rich Azzopardi, told The Post on Friday about Sununu’s criticism.
Sununu, who announced last year that he would not seek a fifth two-year term in 2024, also cited the good relationships he has built with governors from the opposing party.
“Tina Kotek is a great example,” he said, referring to Oregon’s Democratic leader.
“Tina and I don’t agree on a whole lot of political ground, but she’s a wonderful person,” Sununu said. “I think she’s absolutely fantastic. I call her my favorite governor on the West Coast.”
“Phil Murphy and I get along great,” he said of New Jersey’s Democratic governor, praising his “great sense of humor.”
“Again, I don’t think he’s done a great job as governor … but we’ve done really, really well.”
The Washington Post has reached out to Newsom for comment.
