Chris Sununu retracts statement about Trump dropping out of 2024 election if convicted

Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) walked back claims that he made about former President Donald Trump‘s electability on Sunday despite reaffirming most of the criticisms he’s made of the former president over the last few years.

Sununu, who had endorsed Nikki Haley in the 2024 presidential primary, said in an interview with ABC News’s This Week that he does not think Trump should drop out of the race if he is convicted of criminal charges in one of his four felony cases.

“No, no, no — he’s going to drop out after being the nominee? Of course not. You know that’s not to be expected at all,” Sununu told anchor George Stephanopoulos.

“At the end of the day, they [people] want that culture change within the Republican Party. And if we have to have Trump as the standard-bearer — and the voters decided that’s what they wanted, not what I wanted… If he’s going to be the standard-bearer of that, we’ll take it if we have to. That’s how badly America wants a culture change,” the Republican governor continued.

This was a change in tune for Sununu, who said in an interview with CNN in June 2023 that the former president should suspend his campaign for the White House if he is found guilty on any of the 88 charges against him.

At that time, there had been several GOP presidential candidates. Trump had also just been indicted over his handling of classified documents, with those charges joining the ones he received in March that year from a New York hush-money case that will go to trial on Monday.

Despite walking back his claims about Trump and his presidential campaign, Sununu said he still “100%” agrees with his critique of the former president’s efforts on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn the 2020 election that contributed to an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Trump is also facing criminal charges related to those actions.

“His actions absolutely contributed to that,” Sununu said to Stephanopoulos. “There’s no question about that. I hate the election denialism of 2020. Nobody wants to be talking about that in 2024. I think all of that was absolutely terrible.”

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However, he said backing Trump is about more than just the former president and many Americans agree a “change” in the federal government is needed.

“Liberal elites in Washington want to stand on the shoulders of hardworking American families that built this country, defended this country, and tell them how to live their lives,” Sununu said. “They’re angry. They’re upset. That’s the culture change that people want to see.”