New Hampshire GOP Gov. Chris Sununu suggests Chris Christie should drop White House bid

By Alison Main, CNN

(CNN) — New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu suggested Sunday that Chris Christie should drop out of the 2024 presidential race before his state’s primary, declaring the former New Jersey governor has reached a “dead end.”

Sununu, who has endorsed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the Republican primary, told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” that “the only person that wants Chris Christie to stay in the race is Donald Trump.”

“I think all these candidates know it’s always kind of a long shot. And at the end of the day the only person moving is Nikki Haley. Chris Christie isn’t going to make up 30 points in the next three weeks, right?” Sununu said.

Haley, Sununu added, is the candidate who “can make up five or 10 points and kind of give Trump that defeat that no one thought was possible in the next few weeks. And I think that’s very likely to happen. So, again, I think the voters are going to come Nikki’s way. I think, ultimately, hopefully, Chris comes Nikki’s way. But that’s really a decision for Chris to make.”

A Christie campaign spokesperson did not specifically address Sununu’s suggestion that the campaign has no path forward, but said in a statement to CNN: “The events of the last few days fully solidifies the point that Christie has been making for six months. That the truth matters and if you can’t answer the easy questions you can’t fix the big problems.”

Sununu’s comments come as Christie and other GOP presidential hopefuls lean into their criticism of Haley’s failure to mention slavery as a cause of the Civil War at a New Hampshire town hall and subsequent effort to clean up her answer.

Sununu acknowledged it was a mistake, but cast it as a “nonissue.”

“She cleared it up quickly, right? Obviously, if something needs to be cleared up a little bit, you wish you had said it a little differently the first time, but it was quickly cleared up,” he said. “It’s an absolute nonissue.”

Turning to the GOP frontrunner, Sununu warned that former President Donald Trump’s removal from the 2024 primary ballots in Maine and Colorado only serves to aid his “victim card” posture in the presidential race.

“This would only … boost his opportunity to play that victim card down the road as we hit the primaries. It’s not helpful at all, and I just don’t think it’s right,” he said.

Trump’s legal team is expected to appeal the two decisions, based on the 14th Amendment, to remove him from the primary ballots on Tuesday, according to a source familiar with the plans.

Trump would appeal the Colorado ruling to the US Supreme Court and the Maine secretary of state’s decision in state court.

The 14th Amendment, which was ratified after the Civil War, says US officials who take an oath to uphold the Constitution are disqualified from holding future office if they “engaged in insurrection” or have “given aid or comfort” to insurrectionists.

However, the Constitution does not spell out how to enforce the ban, and the vague phrasing has led to questions about whether it even applies to the presidency.

Sununu said Sunday he wants Trump on the ballot in “all 50 states” so that “Nikki Haley can beat him in all 50 states.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.

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