Sununu’s Trump joke, Mowers’ votes

everybody. I’m Adam Sexton and welcome to W. M. U. R. Politics plus our streaming political talk show, not a lot going on in new Hampshire politics this week, it was pretty slow, just seemed like your average week, right scott Spradling, former W nur political director will bring you in. There’s almost too much to talk about, but I’m glad to have you here to provide some insight and long term deep perspective on two big stories of this week. One happened over the weekend when governor chris Sununu went down to the gridiron dinner uh and told the joke heard around the world now about president trump. You know, in normal times, I guess in past times this would be just the thing that people do. You know, you tell jokes about the president, but when president trump is involved, it’s a different dimension there because republicans don’t tend to do that very often. So what are your thoughts just on the fallout essentially from this joke that Sununu told him for those who don’t know that was the governor used an expletive to call former president trump crazy and said essentially, you know, I’m not saying he belongs in a mental institution, but if he isn’t one, he ain’t getting out. So as a joke, but scott you know, what are your thoughts about how this landed? Yeah, I think it landed pretty much predictably. And what I say to that is it feels like there’s too much short term memory and not enough long term memory and maybe that’s the covid shutdown and people sort of forgetting this was the kind of dinner where you lay out those kinds of one liners. So I find it a little bit unfortunate that anybody sort of first of all forgot his full body of work because while he lambasted president trump, he took aim at just about everybody else in the room as well. So in fairness he did what he was supposed to do. It’s a spoof dinner, you roast your your folks, your friends and allies and and and political rivals alike. And that’s the point of this kind of thing. So one of the things that I find a little bit unfortunate is the visceral response that came from, I think some predictable places in the trump side of the aisle and you know, these are the same people that scream snowflake at the other side and political arguments that say, you know, we’re just calling it as it is. It’s the same kind of a thing. Like if if you can’t stand the heat stay out of the political kitchen. But this was meant to be comedy. So take it by which it was intended. And I think that’s the response to the sort of the trump folks that are fired up and, and Adam in terms of like what the fallout ends up being. I personally think that most people would look at it as okay, well, you know, the f bomb, you know, that’s a matter of taste. And whether you think that’s funny or not, the jokes themselves were, I think kind of spot on in terms of the tone and tenor and for independence and folks that maybe aren’t on the trump bandwagon. It felt like it smacked of truth. So it certainly didn’t hurt him with the rest of the political landscape. There there has to be a market opportunity if you think about it that way at some point for a Republican who will do something like this. And you know, I asked Governor Sununu, was there any strategic thought put into this? Because you noted that the predictable reaction from trump world of sort of rushing to the defense of the former president and noting how offended he would be by this. And the governor said, nope, no, just telling jokes. There was no strategic aspect of this at all. But It does, it does enter that context when we are talking about Governor Sununu as someone who in that Washington sort of bubble is now considered and his name is in that list of people who may think about running for president in 2024. So in that context, do you think he’s trying to do anything here to prove a point that might set him apart from other people who are in that conversation? Well, and he can deny it all he wants to. But the reality is it plays out exactly that way. And I mean, I don’t mean to make this sound like a schoolyard fight. But um, he started, it kind of comes to mind and what I mean by that is not the president, but Corey Lewandowski, who was on the front page of the local papers saying we’re going to hunt for a primary rival to chris Sununu, we don’t like the guy and we don’t think he should be governor anymore. So for all intents and purposes, those elbows are already being thrown among the republican side of things, especially the trump wing of the Republican party here in new Hampshire. So for Sununu to have gone out and done a little tongue in cheek and maybe a little side, I kind of a smile. Um, yeah, you can, you can definitely read into it, but in a lot of ways they picked the fight against him. Yeah, trump rolled is ticked off, we’ve heard from cd one Republican candidate, Julian a cr who has said that he’s fielding calls to jump from that republican primary into primary and Sununu, but there’s the aspect of this that is a little bit like trench warfare to where, you know, there’s a pretty defined piece of turf that Governor, Sununu has. Those poll numbers aren’t going anywhere at the moment that we’ve seen in terms of support for him within, not just the Republican Party, but more broadly. So the governor is essentially operating from a pretty safe base of operations here, at least when he’s talking about re election isn’t, I agree Julian a c are threatening to primary Christina who is kind of like matt Cassel saying I’m gonna come back and try to take over tom brady’s job at Tampa Bay. It’s just a kind of a non threat of a threat and I mean no disrespect but I’m trying to keep it in perspective that you’re right chris Sununu, he’s not just popular, he’s arguably the most popular lawmaker politician in new Hampshire right now and he enjoys approval ratings that are pretty strong and pretty bipartisan. At the very least independent voters think he’s doing a pretty decent job. There are plenty of issues, there are plenty of campaign issues the democrats will be able to use against him in reelection this november but the reality is he’s on very firm footing and punch lines at A. D. C. Based event that happens every year where it’s about punchlines that’s not going to move the needle. The story was snowballing a little bit on monday for governor Sununu. And then the page was turned very quickly when the ap published its report essentially saying that CD one candidate Matt Mauer’s had voted in both New Hampshire and New Jersey in the 2016 presidential primary. Of course he’s now running for Congress again and his opponents were piling on like crazy, not just on Tuesday when it happened but through the week continuing to try and drive this story here. Um I was at the state house on Wednesday and everybody was talking about this. So this is something that is a conversation that’s going to continue. I think in this race scott, I agree with you. And I think I’m trying to, as I’m watching this unfold, I’m uh, there’s a benefit of the doubt that I’m trying to give to the politics of this situation. I think it’s clear there was a big mistake made and quite possibly a big law that was busted. At the very least, the political fallout is I’m not sure how Matt Mauer’s credibly talks about voter integrity anymore to a group of fellow republicans who believe that that’s kind of a big deal. So it it hurts him in that conversation. However, he is the nominee from the last go around in the first cd. So it’s not like he’s a new name or a fresh face. This is a new discovery of a person who won the nomination. So my step back senses asking myself, is this a fatal blow? No, I don’t think it is. Is it’s an ongoing headache. Yes, I believe it is, but I don’t know that this necessarily crushes him. But the old saying that we both know from our old friend tom Rath is if you’re explaining you’re losing and that’s not a good thing and it’s definitely fodder for his fellow primary rivals. But Adam, you know, one of the things I’m watching as the other primary contenders in the first cd are offering their thoughts about this is that so this entire flap is a reminder of Matt Mauer’s out of state connections and residency issues dating back just a few years ago. So the sort of like, is he a new Hampshire guy or is he not? Um, that issue uniquely resonates through the first Cd. When you think about a gail huff Brown who may have a residency on the Seacoast but spent a career working in boston and being attached to the state of massachusetts, not to mention her husband scott Brown. Same thing. So there are some residency issues which in my mind is a sort of a boomerang around to benefit if anybody wins out of this conversation Caroline leavitt. And then the big picture out of this is this certainly doesn’t hurt chris Pappas if the prospective nominee and rematch ends up stubbing his toe in a very public way. Yeah. And more on that Pappas match match up in a moment. But I was looking back and trying to think back. And of course, you have the institutional memory here of times when we have seen these quote unquote bombshell reports drop in CD one specifically in specifically in Republican primaries. You know, you’ve got the, the instance of frank Guinta with the family pot of money that was really discussed. You know, I think in more than one election cycle that feels like it was almost all many times that we were talking about that one. And then you go back to 1996 a very competitive cd one Republican primary, john E Sununu having to admit to have smoked marijuana as a college student that interview, I’m not sure if you did it through gritted teeth. You know, he was really upset about that big issue in 96 you know, But in both instances, Guinta and Sununu survived. So you have a record Of, you know, things happening, stories dropping on these sort of frontrunner candidates and Republican voters in CD1 making a fairly pragmatic decision saying, Okay, yeah, warts and all, I think this is the winner. Yeah. And I agree with you. Um, the I remember 96 I remember the begin to issues as well, and, you know, dealing with john e what I remember about that was it was A question that went to basically everybody in the campaign and it was a sort of a temporary eyebrow raiser and back in the time, remember we’re talking late 90s. So back in the time, that was a bigger issue than it would be today. So, um with that said he did do that interview through gritted teeth. I remember the campaign not being terribly happy about us even asking the question. Um, I think their their sense was it was that sort of the analogy of when did you stop beating your wife? Kind of a question and understood it. He answered it it sort of resonated for a couple of new cycles and then went away, it was no longer an issue. You’re right about the frank into family pot money related things that turned into other investigations and, and ethics challenges and things that turned into a longer conversation that became less about youthful indiscretions and decisions versus how do you handle your money and what kinds of deals do you do? That became more of a thread that was also fueled by his, his campaign opponents, but became questions that just dogged him for a while. But I just don’t think helped. Um, at the same point, you’re right, they won both of those races, which is why I think looking at those historic moments in this context with Matt Mauer’s is a very smart move because I’m not sure and I honestly, I’m not sure how big a deal with this issue, voter integrity really and truly is to republicans. Is that really what motivates them to turn out and make a decision in a primary? Or isn’t it? There’s a lot of talk about it. There’s a lot of bluster about it, but we also know there’s been a lot of investigations about our system without a lot of findings of real problems. So I don’t know how real the issue is and how much it’s like to the heart of Republican primary voters. Last question for you scott you brought up congressman Pappas showers could survive this in the primary. But do you see Pappas letting go of an issue like this in the general? No, this is low hanging fruit for the Democratic Party. I can see some ads that could come either from Ray Buckley and the state Democratic Party or from the Democratic Congressional campaign committee, even from the Pappas campaign, they will absolutely make hay out of it. Um because you can put the sound bites up against things that he said before and it just, it’s a bad look. It’s a it is, it’s a mistake. It’s a problem and it’s something that’s not going to quickly go away in this cycle. Um and and really he just has to continue facing it head on own it and and keep trying to, I think, change the subject. I think one thing that was definitely making Democratic heads explode earlier in the week was when my father said that he did it for trump essentially that when he moved, he said he did this to vote to help president trump secure that nomination. And that’s the kind of comment atom that resonates beautifully in a Republican primary, but it doesn’t sit well a couple of months later in a general election. Alright, scott Spradling, we benefit as always, from your perspective. Thanks for joining us on this friday on politics plus. Alright, and thank you everybody out there in cyberspace for watching. We’ll see you next friday