Margaret Brennan spars with Sununu over his support of Trump

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) on Sunday doubled down on his commitment to support the eventual GOP presidential nominee, even if it’s former President Trump.

In an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” Margaret Brennan repeatedly pushed Sununu to explain why he would support Trump as the hypothetical nominee, despite previously saying Trump would be harmful to Republicans in down-ballot races.

Sununu, who has endorsed former UN ambassador Nikki Haley for president, has frequently criticized Trump for failing to do more while in office and for his actions around Jan. 6, 2021 and the indictments he faces.

Asked why he “no longer [has] such a strong conviction” on some of these positions, Sununu said, “I absolutely do.”

Brennan cut him off, asking, “But you would support him if he’s the nominee?”

“I would support him- but- Yeah, I never said I wouldn’t support him. And we never said we wouldn’t support the Republican nominee but understand the candidate to go up against Donald Trump,” Sununu said.

“No, but you said it would be harmful,” Brennan pressed again.

“Yeah, but I didn’t say it wasn’t gonna support him. Republicans are going to support him. This would be a nail biter race come November. With Nikki Haley at the top she wins by ten- ten points. It’s a fundamentally different argument because you get the Senate, you get the House seats, you get the governorships, you get all the way down the ticket, the Republicans win.  Donald Trump is just simply the weakest candidate. And so again, that’s the opportunity that Nikki brings to the table,” he said.

Brennan pushed again.

“Okay, I’m sorry, you’re saying you would still support the weakest candidate, even though it would hurt your party in down-down ballot races just to be consistent?”

Sununu attacked President Biden in his response, making clear he would not support the Democratic president.

“I think Trump’s the weakest nominee and would have a tough time beating Biden, for sure. But we’re going to support the Republican nominee. But at the end of the day, that’s why Nikki Haley is surging, that’s why so many people are getting behind,” he said.