Chris Sununu, the Republican governor of New Hampshire, said on Sunday that he didn’t agree with the arguments that Donald Trump and his legal team are making that the former president should have complete immunity in the criminal cases against him.
Appearing on the “Meet the Press” program on NBC, Sununu said that “everybody should be concerned” with the view that the president is taking.
The hosts of the program asked the governor whether he believed presidents should have complete immunity, “even for things that cross the line.”
He quickly responded:
“Of course not.”
The hosts then played a clip of comments that Trump made this past weekend at a New Hampshire rally, where he said that any president needs to have immunity so “that [the] president can act and do what he feels and what his group of advisors feel is the absolute right thing.”
Once the clip was done playing, Sununu was given the opportunity to respond, and he didn’t let that chance pass him by. He said:
“The amazing thing about that clip is he was dead serious. He wasn’t even making one of his ridiculous jokes. He was dead serious about that.
“And that should give everybody — I don’t care what political party you’re from, whether you’re an extreme conservative or a socialist liberal — everybody should be concerned with that type of mentality going into the White House.”
Continuously, the former president and his legal team have said that the actions he took before, during and after the January 6 Capitol riot were protected by immunity that presidents enjoy.
That is a main question that’s being posed in court now, as Trump is staring down four felony criminal charges that were brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith — all related to trying to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
Trump’s lawyers have requested that the appeals court in Washington, D.C., throw out the case over presidential immunity grounds. While Smith asked the Supreme Court to take up the case on an expedited basis — in large part so the case could start in March — the high court denied that request.
Sununu has thrown his support behind Nikki Haley, the former UN ambassador, in the GOP primary race for the presidential nomination. That being said, he also added that he’d eventually support Trump in the race if he won the nomination, even if the former president were to be a convicted felon at that point.
Kristen Welker, one of the hosts of the NBC program, asked Sununu about the pledge he made to support whoever wins the GOP nomination, specifically how the governor could support Trump considering he disagreed so wholeheartedly with what he said.
Sununu responded:
“At the end of the day, I think most Republicans are going to get behind the Republican nominee. I’m hoping that it’s obviously Nikki Haley. This is how bad Joe Biden is. Six months ago, Trump couldn’t beat Biden. This is how bad Joe Biden is.”
