Republican New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, who endorsed GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley over former President Donald Trump before ultimately endorsing Trump after Haley dropped out, said on CNN with Jake Tapper that election denialism is “a very serious issue” but it’s “not really a top issue” in the 2024 election.
Sununu contends that the top issues “are still the border, inflation and things of that nature, those are the issues you see out there that are really affecting people’s lives.” Sununu added that he doesn’t think election denialism “will be a driver for those swing voters” and claims “they’re not putting it on the top of their list. It’s really what’s hitting them in the pocketbook.”
Chris Sununu on CNN on Trump’s election denialism: “I think it’s on both sides of the aisle.” (Note the lack of pushback on this ridiculous claim.) pic.twitter.com/q4Qp9wjSfc
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 11, 2024
Political pundit Aaron Rupar found fault with the CNN interview and Sununu’s unchallenged assertions, calling out the Governor’s claims of election denialism “on both sides of the aisle” and Tapper’s “lack of pushback on this ridiculous claim.”
Sununu calls Trump the “standard-bearer” for the “absolutely terrible” election denialism, which may inform Tapper’s acquiescence, saying “no one wants to be talking about what happened in 2020.”
Sununu is patently incorrect in his assertion that no one wants to talk about what happened in 2020. The Republican National Committee (RNC) last week distributed an electronic scripted call to voters’ phones on behalf of new co-chair Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, saying Democrats committed “massive fraud” in the 2020 election.
The message has been effective, with polls repeatedly showing a majority of Republicans believe the election was corrupt. Trump, a branding expert, has never wavered from his rhetoric that the election was “rigged.” As Trump administration acting deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue told the Jan 6 committee: Trump told his DOJ during the post-election tumult to “just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”
“Just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”
Former DOJ official Richard Donoghue recalls what he says then-President Trump told him about the 2020 election. pic.twitter.com/FS0gAeQfve
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 23, 2022