Sununu Suggests Christie Withdraw from Race to Support Haley’s Bid Against Trump

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie should drop out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination race in order to give former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley a clearer path to defeat former President Donald Trump in the New Hampshire primary, the state’s governor, Chris Sununu, told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.

Sununu, who is a Republican and has endorsed Haley for the GOP presidential nomination, said, “Chris Christie’s a friend, but his race is at an absolute dead end. This is a two-person race … between Trump and Nikki Haley. Everybody understands that. [Christie] knows his voters, who want to see Trump defeated, are all coming over to Nikki Haley. In fact, the only person that wants Chris Christie to stay in the race is Donald Trump, right? I mean, think about the irony of that.”

Sununu added that Christie “wants to stay in the race to speak the truth about Trump, but that translating to votes in a primary is a very different thing. And he’s hit a ceiling. And right now, he probably won’t even get any delegates in the state of New Hampshire if the race were today. So if Chris is true to his message about defeating Trump, … I think he’s going to make the right decision eventually and ensure that this is a two-person race, where if Trump can’t get 50% of the vote — which he cannot in New Hampshire — then he’s in trouble.”

Sununu insisted that the only person moving in the right direction is Haley. “Chris Christie isn’t going to make up 30 points in the next three weeks, right? Nikki Haley can make up 5 or 10 points and kind of give Trump that defeat that no one thought was possible in the next few weeks. And I think that’s very likely to happen.”

However, the New Hampshire governor said, “there’s no doubt that if Christie stays in the race, the risk is that he takes [Haley’s] margin of the win.”

Sununu also commented on Haley’s recent answer to a question about the cause of the Civil War, in which she at first did not mention slavery but then walked that back after harsh criticism.

Sununu called Haley’s remarks “an absolute nonissue,” although he did acknowledge it was a mistake that she “quickly cleared up.”