New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) launched a scathing attack on “Democratic Party elites” in an interview on Friday, blaming the leadership for President Biden’s poor performance in the recent debates.
Sununu highlighted the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) decision early in the election cycle to skip the New Hampshire primary and focus first on South Carolina.
“Let’s remember this is not Joe Biden’s fault.” he told NewsNation Now. “This is Democratic elites who skipped the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire and said they were going to elect Joe Biden president when they knew he had problems,” host Connell McShane said.
“They had a chance. This is what happens when you don’t try to navigate the primary and you try to basically play games,” the governor added.
His remarks were a reference to the Democratic National Committee’s decision, at the urging of state and local Democrats, to hold the first primary in a state deemed more representative of the party’s diverse electorate. Sununu and other New Hampshire politicians have blasted the president for the decision.
Although Biden is not on the New Jersey ballot, he was declared the winner of the primary by roll-up vote, but the state still did not award him any delegates.
Sununu praised former President Trump’s performance at Thursday night’s debate in Atlanta, saying the president “did exactly what he was supposed to do” in the debate.
“He demonstrated competence. He did exactly what needed to be done last night without any bombast,” he said Friday. “He was clearly the adult in the room. Biden looked absolutely terrible.”
Sununu, one of the few Republican governors in the Democratic stronghold of the Northeast, initially supported former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley in the primary, who dropped out of the race in March, paving the way for Trump to become the GOP’s presumptive nominee.
Despite calling Trump a “loser” in the past, Sununu has said he will vote for the Republican candidate regardless of who comes out on top in the polls.
The governor added in an interview Friday that he called on Democrats last year to replace Biden as their top presidential candidate, but now believes it’s too late to do so.
His comments came after Biden’s stumble in Thursday’s debate sparked panic within Democrats and discussion of whether the sitting president should step aside and hold an open party convention in August – calls that Biden and his campaign have denied, saying the president isn’t going anywhere.
Sununu called the call for an open convention a “foolish idea.”
“He’s going to be the nominee,” Sununu said. “He’s got to raise $500 million in about four months, so who’s going to take his place? He might be the nominee, but he’s probably going to lose just as much, if not more, than Biden, who’s going to try to get his name out there, so that’s a tough one to pull off.”
But if Biden “can demonstrate strength and ability in the second debate, maybe America can forget about the first debate and hit the reset button,” he added.
Biden’s voice sounded hoarse at the start of Thursday’s debate, something his team quickly chalked up to the cold. During a rally in North Carolina on Friday, Biden’s voice seemed to return to normal, he had more energy and was less stumped.
When asked by McShane about the incident being overturned, Sununu denied it and attributed it to a teleprompter.
“When Biden has a teleprompter, he can calmly read from it 80 percent of the time,” he said, adding, “So I think one of the most disconcerting things is that what we saw last night was clearly the real Joe Biden.”
“I think a lot of people are worried, a lot of people are starting to wake up to reality,” the governor continued. “This is why we have an economic crisis. This is why we have an immigration crisis that’s out of control.”
“It all makes sense to the American people, and they just want change,” Sununu added.
NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.
