On the Howie Carr radio show Wednesday, Trump advisor Corey Lewandowski said his old boss has given him a new job: Get rid of Gov. Chris Sununu.
“When we spoke earlier in the day, you told me that [President Trump] assigned you a couple of duties and one is in your home state of New Hampshire,” Carr said to Lewandowski. “What’s your assignment for President Trump in New Hampshire?”
“The president is very unhappy with the chief executive officer of the state of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu,” Lewandowski replied. “And Sununu, in the president’s estimation, is someone who’s never been loyal to him. And the president said it would be really great if somebody would run against Chris Sununu.”
Lewandowski said Trump has given him two jobs in the Granite State.
“One is making sure we’ve got a great candidate in U.S. Senate race who can beat Maggie Hassan, another failed, hack, Washington, DC politician who never delivered. And the second is potentially finding someone to run against Chris Sununu, to make sure they understand that the ‘America First’ agenda is more than just a saying. It’s actually about putting people first and listening to what constituents have to say,” Lewandowski said.
“So the president wants to get rid of Chris Sununu as the governor of New Hampshire,” Carr replied.
Lewandowski referenced Sununu’s recent appearance on “Jeff Zucker’s former network” (CNN), in which the governor said he wasn’t interested in campaigning with Trump in New Hampshire. Lewandowski also noted President Joe Biden’s shout-out to the New Hampshire governor during his most recent press conference.
Lewandowski’s attack on Sununu is ironic given the New Hampshire Democratic Party spent four years and millions of dollars attempting to label the Republican governor a “Trump guy, through and through.” Unlike other northeast Republican governors like Charlie Baker (Mass.) and Phil Scott (Vt.), Sununu supported Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
Still, Sununu has been willing to criticize the former president, and he’s repeatedly rejected Trump’s disproven theory that the 2020 election was stolen through a massive, complex, international conspiracy. And he continues to denounce the January 6 Capitol riot and President Trump’s suggestion the criminals involved should be pardoned.
His critiques of Trump, as well as Republicans in the U.S. Senate, have led some to suggest Sununu is eyeing a campaign for president in 2024 in the “John Kasich/John McCain” political lane. Asked about his emergence as the “Republican who doesn’t like Republicans,” Sununu told NHJournal Wednesday:
“Do not compare me to John Kasich. John Kasich is an angry guy who goes out of his way to bash the party. That’s crazy. I expressed frustration, but I didn’t call anyone out by name. Most Americans have had it with both parties of Congress. Democrats stonewalling for four years against Trump, Republicans stonewalling this time in. I’m sharing what every American thinks. So this isn’t about bashing.”
Thus far, no serious primary challengers have emerged to take on Sununu. And few political observers see a credible Democratic challenger on the horizon either.
In his radio interview, Lewandowski also pushed back on reports that he’s been, as Carr put it, “banned from Mar-a-Lago” after allegations he sexually harassed the wife of Idaho construction executive John Odom, a major Trump donor.
“I know I spoke to [Trump] Sunday. I spoke to him Monday. “It hasn’t been reported, Howie, because I’m not the guy who runs to the media every time I have a conversation with Donald Trump, but I was at Mar a Lago with the president a couple of weeks ago,” Lewandowski said.
Lewandowski, however, did have some praise for Gov. Sununu. Chris Sununu’s dad, that is.
“To John H. Sununu’s credit, he was one of the biggest critics of Donald Trump when he was running for office. And then he saw the policies of Donald Trump, what he was doing as president, and he was on TV fighting for those policies every day. Because he understood fundamentally that Hillary Clinton’s vision for America was 180 degrees different.
“And don’t forget, John is a guy who was born in Cuba. So he understands what a different lifestyle is like.”
