New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) spurred an angry backlash Wednesday when he responded with a chuckle to reports former President Donald Trump praised powerful Nazis to his White House chief of staff.
Sununu, once an outspoken supporter of Republican presidential primary hopeful Nikki Haley, said on CNN Wednesday morning he plans to vote for Trump — despite Kelly's on-the-record comment that Trump wanted generals like Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's.
"We've heard a lot of extreme things about Donald Trump, from Donald Trump," Sununu said with a laugh. "It's kind of par for the course."
Sununu argued independent voters would brush off warnings of fascism, which come from a growing number of Republicans and former Trump staffers, and vote on economic policy instead.
This take spurred outrage from politicians, pundits and academics who said Sununu had missed the point.
"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," replied Norman Ornstein, Emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
"The problem, Norm," replied Never Trump activist George Conway, "is that the ones who clearly know better turn out to be the worst—precisely because we know they know better."
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"You know what would be great?" asked conservative commentator Sarah Longwell, "If politicians stopped acting like pundits and started acting like the leaders they’re supposed to be. This is pathetic."
"I just heard Chris Sununu on CNN try to rationalize Trump’s fascism as unimportant and it’s disgusting," wrote Georgia Recorder columnist Jay Bookman. "Just flat-out disgusting. How do these people look themselves in the mirror?"
"Here in swing state Georgia, most people still hate Nazis," added Colorado Sun columnist Craig Silverman on X. "A vote for Trump is a vote for America’s Hitler. Don’t ever be a Chris Sununu."
"Ah, yes, another of the Good Republicans who once warned the GOP to stop nominating kooks," Atlantic staff writer Tom Nichols wrote, "and now is on board because one day Sununu will join Haley and Youngkin and recreate the party or something."
"Wow," wrote Michael McFaul, Stanford University political science professor and former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, "Sununu obviously hasn’t studied what German supporters of Hitler said in the 1930s."
