Chris Sununu Thinks Chris Christie Should Drop Out, Endorse Nikki Haley, Who Is Not Named Chris
Oh boy, it’s officially election year!
Nikki Haley walked into several rakes last week when she seemingly couldn’t remember the word “slavery” while discussing the cause of the Civil War. She’s now entered 2024 desperately attempting to shake her antebellum gaffe and finish a triumphant second place in the upcoming New Hampshire primary.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu is a Haley booster and wishes everyone would just shut up already about the slavery goof up. Not every presidential candidate can pass a remedial US history course on the first attempt.
“I think [Haley] was talking more to the freedoms and liberties that we want for every American and the lessons that come out of that going forward,” Sununu told CNN’s Dana Bash. “So, yes, I think she just kind of skipped right over the obvious. And, yes, I guess the press and folks wanted to hear her come back to the obvious on slavery. She cleared it right up and everyone’s moving on.”
No, we’re not. I’m personally going to make Haley wish she’d just had her own private email server.
Haley’s primary opponent Chris Christie has said that the former South Carolina governor isn’t an idiot and she deliberately failed to mention slavery in her response because “she’s unwilling to offend anyone by telling the truth.” This neatly connects with Christie’s previous criticism of Haley’s consistent refusal to call out Donald Trump for his ongoing attacks against democracy. (He’s also pointed out that she won’t even categorically refuse to serve as Trump’s vice president.)
Sununu told Bash that while he considers Christie a friend, his campaign “is at an absolute dead end. He’s going to say anything he can.”
Yes, Christie is so desperate, he’s willing to tell people that slavery was bad and directly caused the Civil War! Sununu somehow imagines that Haley is the straight shooter with all her Lost Cause propaganda.
Then Sununu began an epic Gish gallop:
“This is a two-person race, right? It’s between Trump and Nikki Haley. Everybody understands that. He knows his voters, who want to see Trump defeated, are all coming over to Nikki Haley. In fact, the only person that wants Chris Christie to stay in the race is Donald Trump, right? I mean, think about the irony of that.”
Alanis Morrisette might ponder the “irony” of Sununu’s statement, but I’ll pass.
Ron DeSantis was the original “Trump without as much baggage” candidate. Haley is gunning for that lane. Christie was always the overtly anti-Trump candidate who represented the Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger Republicans (there are just very few of them left). Christie could drop out tomorrow but that wouldn’t help Haley because she keeps circling the moral drain. She even announced this weekend that she’d pardon Trump even if he’s convicted because she is as well acquainted with post-Watergate history as she is with the Civil War. Pardoning obvious crook Richard Nixon might’ve cost Gerald Ford a second term, but at least he could say he was president.
Forget Christie’s pro-democracy, anti-coup stance. Haley’s resorting to less than subtle bribes to remain in Trump and his supporters’ good graces. That’s the song of the truly desperate.
I don’t want to provoke people by mentioning polls, but even the most generous recent ones have Haley well behind Trump in New Hampshire. However, according to last month’s St. Anselm poll, Haley has 30 percent support to Trump’s 44 percent. If the entirety of Christie’s current 12 percent all flocked to Haley, you’d have a statistical tie. Hooray! However, Haley is actively alienating those voters, who might’ve (incorrectly) assumed she had at least one or two scruples.
Sununu volunteered his own new year’s resolution for Christie — drop out of the race and back Haley. That’s not likely to happen, even though Christie has a demonstrated record of bad endorsements.
Follow Stephen Robinson on Bluesky and Threads.
Subscribe to his Substack.
"...Pardoning obvious crook Richard Nixon might’ve cost Gerald Ford a second term"
His "first term" was less than two and a half years. Considering that if he had won the 1976 election, he could've run ( and served ) in 1980 also - so it's kinda hard for me to consider Ford was running for a second term in 1976.
Your humorous hyperlinks are a hoot!