Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) is skeptical the Department of Justice's indictment of former President Donald Trump will hurt him in the 2024 GOP primary.
Sununu suggested Trump's indictment, stemming from his handling of classified documents after he left the White House, will only give him more ammunition for his political grievances and further rev up his base. Trump has already been arraigned in New York on charges of business fraud.
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"I think it has almost no impact in the primary," Sununu told Hugh Hewitt during his radio show on Friday. "He's gonna play the victim card. He's gonna say it's politically driven, you know, all of that."
"I think most Republican base voters are just like, 'Yeah, yeah, you know, we've heard this story before,'" Sununu continued. "Not a huge impact for the primary, but very, very impactful for the general election if he were to be the nominee."
There are at least 10 Republicans vying to become the standard-bearer of the Republican Party in 2024, but despite the challengers, Trump remains the consistent front-runner in the race. It remains to be seen what, if any, impact the indictment charges will have on Trump's popularity, but his poll numbers only rose after his first indictment in New York.
Sununu had flirted with running for office but decided against a presidential campaign on Monday. He said he is now working to block Trump from the nomination.
Like former Vice President Mike Pence, another 2024 GOP hopeful, Sununu wants more transparency from Attorney General Merrick Garland but is skeptical it will happen.
"Now, the former vice president said, 'Before the sun sets tonight, Merrick Garland, the attorney general, should appear in front of the American people and answer questions and release the indictment.' Do you agree with that?" Hewitt asked Sununu.
"Yeah, that'll happen," Sununu shot back sarcastically. "I agree with it completely, but I mean, my God, are you kidding?"
"He's been a complete coward in this whole process," Sununu said of Garland. He criticized Garland for how he handled the search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in August.
"Set expectations for the American people when you do unprecedented things. They don't understand the value of that," Sununu said. "And so, therefore, they've taken another unprecedented step with this indictment."
"And of course, they're going to go down the same terrible rabbit hole of keeping people in the dark, making people wonder, you know, what the political motives are," he added. "And it just stirs up again more lack of trust for a department that America really needs to start buying into."
"The Department of Justice should be the thing that we can lean on, the rock of Washington that doesn't get involved in political message," Sununu said. "It is deep into the swamp."
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Hewitt asked Sununu whether he expected Trump will participate in the first GOP primary debate this summer now that he has been indicted a second time.
"The former president has already indicated he doesn't want to participate in the debates and doesn't feel like he needs to, so it'll be interesting if he uses this as a continued excuse to not show up," Sununu said. "But I don't think he has the will to not get on that stage. You can't say you're a fighter and not get onstage. I think he's gonna get on one way or the other."