Contact: Ryan Mahoney, ryan@amplifynh.org
ICYMI: Sununu Makes Himself A National Embarrassment In Viral Moment Defending Trump’s Hitler Admiration
MANCHESTER, NH — In reaction to the explosive new reports from The Atlantic and The New York Times, that detailed former Trump White House Chief of Staff, four-star General John Kelly revealing Donald Trump’s repeatedly expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and declaration that "I need the kind of generals that Hitler had," Trump surrogate and supporter Governor Chris Sununu not only passed up the opportunity to disavow Trump, but spent yesterday on the cable news circuit defending Trump on CNN and Fox News. His appearances sparked bipartisan outrage from political and academic experts, members of Congress, and the media. The initial clip shared by Aaron Rupar received 5.6 million views on Twitter and counting.
“Yesterday, Chris Sununu decided to excuse and justify adoration for Adolf Hitler instead of standing up to it,” said Amplify New Hampshire Executive Director Ryan Mahoney. “He seemed to suggest that Trump’s fascist tendencies are tolerable because we already know about them. In parading across cable news in defense of Trump’s praise of Hitler, Sununu is once again proving himself more loyal to Trump than New Hampshire — willing to sell us and democracy down the river for status and power. Kelly Ayotte’s silence speaks volumes. We can only assume this is the kind of leadership she’ll continue as governor.”
Trump’s sycophants want us to trust them over our own eyes and ears.
WHEN GEN. JOHN KELLY WENT PUBLIC about Trump’s praise for Hitler and his fears about a dictatorial second Trump term, he joined a growing list of former Trump officials ringing the alarm.
He also sparked what has become a pathetic if not predictable pattern, in which a chorus of Trump sycophants obediently rush forward to explain away the alarming revelation and impugn the witness’s credibility. [...]
Chris Sununu is unbothered: “We’ve heard a lot of extreme things from Donald Trump. With a guy like that, it’s kinda baked into the vote.” Sen. Bill Hagerty, on CNN, downplayed the entire revelation as a matter of personal dispute between two men. Kelly and Trump, he said, “were not a good fit.” [...]
There is something deeply pernicious to this routine. These people want you to forget the cumulative weight of the accusations against Trump, especially when those accusations are coming from his own former employees—many of them high-ranking military officers. They’re doing so not because they don’t believe the accusations but because they know how harmful they could be.
You know how we know this? Because the claims of Kelly and others are backed up by what we’ve seen with our own eyes over the last nine years.
Are we supposed to be skeptical that Trump called soldiers “suckers” and “losers” when he said as much out loud about John McCain?
Are we supposed to be skeptical that he praised Hitler’s generals when he admires dictators, dined with white supremacist Nick Fuentes, calls people “vermin,” and talks about immigrants “poisoning the blood” of America?
Are we supposed to believe he bears no responsibility for January 6th when we all watched him summon a mob and sic it on the Capitol?
Are we supposed to believe that this is all about some personal tiff between Kelly and Trump when so many others have so many similar accounts? [...]
I have another idea: Why don’t we accept the obvious truth that is staring us in the face? Trump is dangerous and unfit and all the responsible people who served in his last term have told us as much. [...]
Trump’s defenders want us to doubt what we have seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears. They want us to treat a White House chief of staff confirming that the former president praised Hitler and called members of the military “suckers and losers” as just another bit of campaign fodder—not evidence of something fundamentally rotten at the core of their movement. If we allow that to happen, it will be a stain on our politics akin to electing Trump himself.
Republicans are struggling to defend the report of Donald Trump’s wild comment pining for “the kind of generals that Hitler had”—and in some cases, they’re not defending it at all. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu said Wednesday that a casual appreciation for Hitler’s Nazi regime was “par for the course” for the Republican presidential nominee. [...]
Sununu showed just how quick he, and likely other Republicans too, have been to accept Trump’s extremist tendencies. But, as Sununu explained moments later, he was only doing it because it’s what everyone else was doing. [...]
So, while Sununu can acknowledge that Hitler is bad, it’s only from an optics standpoint. If everyone else is OK with it, it’s better to just get on board!
The New Hampshire GOP governor was accused of normalizing fascist rhetoric with his chuckling response.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) drew fierce backlash for laughing off a report that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, when he was president, praised brutal Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler to his then-White House chief of staff, John Kelly. [...]
Critics accused Sununu ― who has flip-flopped with his opinion on Trump, at one point calling him “crazy” but now fully backing the Republican 2024 ticket ― of normalizing Trump’s fascist rhetoric.
His comments quickly received criticism online for defending Trump, who he had previously criticized. Sununu endorsed Nikki Haley in the GOP presidential primary before she dropped out earlier this year. Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark, wrote on X that Sununu’s comments were “gross,” adding that he “is not a leader.”
YOU SURE? On CNN, Chris Sununu also groused that “the media likes to talk about the salacious stuff.”New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu on Wednesday turned down the chance to revoke his support for his party’s presidential nominee after his former White House chief of staff said he is a “fascist” who has expressed a desire for “the kind of generals that Hitler had.” [...]
Sununu tried the near-impossible task of threading the needle by saying that anyone liking Hitler is wrong, but that he will still support a candidate who does because of “how bad” things are with a Democratic administration.
On social media, Sununu’s performance received scathing reviews:
Former NHGOP Chair Jennifer Horn said:
“This is exactly what's wrong with the GOP and makes the entire party a dangerous choice.”
University of New Hampshire Political Science Professor Dante Scala said:
“@ChrisSununu an instructive lesson for @KellyAyotte: Once you bend the knee to Trump, it gets easier and easier to keep doing just that.”
Former CNN White House Correspondent and NYT contributor John Harwood said:
“the smirk on the face of this weasel...my god Sununu is disgraceful”
Former GOP Political Strategist, RNC spokesperson, and columnist Cheri Jacobus said:
“In case you're wondering how Adolf Hitler was normalized.”
Former GOP operative Matthew Sheffield said:
“Chris Sununu speaks for no one but himself. He's largely unknown and disliked by natl voters who know him. He's the ultimate Fictitious Republican: smarmy, proudly amoral, unpopular, and booked everywhere on teevee news. Producers should stop inflicting him on the audience.”
U.S. Congressman Brendan Boyle said:
“There are many pathetic servile types sucking up to Trump. Chris Sununu might actually be the worst of them all.”
“The Republican Party is now admitting that Hitler admiration and fascism is ‘baked into’ their governing. Unreal and deeply shameful. Vote all of these people out.”
Trump former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway’s husband, columnist, and strategist George Conway said:
Malignant narcissism? Baked in.
Psychopathy? Baked in.
This is what social psychologists call ‘malignant normality.’”
Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia and Professor of Political Science at Stanford Michael McFaul said:
“Wow. Sununu obviously hasn’t studied what German supporters of Hitler said in the 1930s.”
Author David Simon said:
“The spectacle of ostensibly normal, maintstream Republican politicians rationalizing their continued support for Donald Trump -- in this case because open assertions and affections for fascism are no more or less unjustifiable than his other blurts and rants -- is some of the most shameful public performance in the history of that political party and this republic.”
NYU History Professor and author on authoritarianism Ruth Ben-Ghiat said:
“I see...so even Hitler does not move the needle and the extremism is now completely normallzed. That kind of acceptance and cowardice is exactly how you get to Fascist governance.”
Columnist and emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute Norm Ornstein said:
“Of all the lickspittles for Trump, of all those who we once thought had at least a trace element of fundamental human decency, Chris Sununu is at the bottom of the barrel.”
Staff Writer at The Atlantic Tom Nichols said:
“Crass opportunists like Sununu know Trump will be a disaster, but somehow believe that they will be spared from the damage Trump will inflict on the nation - and then they will return as honored Wise Men to rebuild the GOP.”
USA Today humor columnist Rex Huppke said:
“I mean, the guy likes Hitler, whaddya gonna do? Vote for a lib?”
MSNBC Columnist Michael Cohen said:
“If you watch closely you can literally see the remaining remnants of Chris Sununu’s soul leave his body.”
Former Orlando Police Chief and Congresswoman Val Demings said:
“There is nothing embarrassing in saying ‘this new information changes my opinion.’Nothing shameful in saying ‘I was wrong, but I've learned more.’Hearing praise for Adolf Hitler should be one of those times.”
One Tik Tok user said:
“Sitting here watching Chris Sununu embarrass the living s*** out of himself on CNN is just disturbing. Republicans have zero shame and they will do anything for money and power."
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About Amplify New Hampshire
Amplify New Hampshire is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization founded to keep Granite Staters informed of the decisions made in local, state, and federal government that will impact their lives and empower them to enact change. For more information, visit amplifynh.org.