• Sununu mentioned Trump’s frontrunner standing will not shift if GOP candidates aren’t keen to go after him.
• The NH GOP governor pointed to a ballot that confirmed Trump with 37% of the first vote within the state.
• “That is 60% of the voters proper now that aren’t with Trump in New Hampshire,” he mentioned on Fox Information.

Gov. Chris Sununu on Saturday mentioned that the crop of GOP presidential candidates going up in opposition to former President Donald Trump can defeat the ex-commander-in-chief in the event that they’re keen to go after him.

The New Hampshire Republican — who flirted with a 2024 presidential bid earlier than opting out and who final week introduced that he wouldn’t search reelection to a fifth time period in workplace — mentioned on Fox Information that the presidential candidates needed to be keen to “swing” and “take the punch” if they really need to dethrone Trump from his nationwide frontrunner standing.

Through the dialog, Sununu introduced up a current College of New Hampshire survey, which confirmed Trump within the lead at 37%, which is effectively beneath a majority. The remainder of the GOP major voters had been cut up among the many different candidates.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida was in second place with 23%, whereas Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina got here in third with 8%, adopted by Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota and former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey every incomes 6% assist, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina every registering 5% assist.

“That is 60% of the voters proper now that aren’t with Trump in New Hampshire,” Sununu remarked whereas on-air. “I believe that quantity will develop even increasingly more.”

“Both you are keen to swing, you are keen to provide the punch and take the punch and present management, otherwise you’re kowtowing,” Sununu mentioned, including that it’s unlikely {that a} GOP candidate will flip a dedicated Trump backer anyway. “I do not perceive the politics of it, since you’re not going to get a Trump voter. Proper? They’re with Trump.”

“So if the bottom is with Trump, the bottom is for Trump. He is nonetheless going to be within the race,” the governor continued. “So you bought to seek out your individual path. And I believe Chris [Christie] was proper. You gotta undergo them. You’ll be able to’t go round.”

Christie, a onetime Trump ally who in 2020 helped the then-president put together for his debates in opposition to now-President Joe Biden, has been one of many fiercest critics of the previous president — going after him on every thing from his present indictments to his conduct on Jan. 6, 2021. In current days, Christie has castigated Trump as a “con artist” who’s “grifting” marketing campaign donations from his supporters to pay authorized charges.

And former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, who as soon as served as a US lawyer and congressman, has referred to as on Trump to step except for the race over the ex-president’s present authorized points and the potential for extra indictments.

However the different candidates have largely steered away from harshly criticizing the previous president, normally directing their message to 1 that requires a subsequent technology of management for the GOP.

Sununu mentioned that the Republican candidates would threat “nothing” by calling out Trump extra straight.