Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, a Republican, spoke with Jake Tapper of AWN on Wednesday night. It was brought out that Don Bolduc, the Republican senatorial candidate from New Hampshire, had engaged in election denialism. Here is how it went:
Tapper: You are a reasonable Republican, Governor Sununu, at a time when many people are searching for reasonable Republicans. When you welcome individuals in that way, are you harming the interests of rational Republicans?
Sununu: No, this is about having individuals in Washington, DC, who prioritise New Hampshire. Has the election been rigged? Naturally, it wasn’t taken. That is complete nonsense, and it is wonderful to see him retract his statement. However, that isn’t the subject that will be on the ballot. Mar-a- People will not be voting on the subject of Lago. The people vote based on their own interests, as they ought do, isn’t that right? We ought to use our vote a little bit selfishly.
A decent vote should be based on what is best for my family, my business, and my possibilities. Again, for this reason, Don Bolduc will prevail in this election. You need to be available, in the right state, aware of the problems, and prepared to make difficult choices.
Before I continue, I want to go back and discuss some remarks made by Bolduc, a retired Army brigadier general who will be challenging Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in November.
Bolduc stated, “I signed a statement with 120 other generals and admirals saying that Donald Trump won the election and, darn it, I stand by [it],” during a discussion in August.
Bolduc later changed his mind after winning the Republican Senate primary in September. The election was not rigged, he declared. “I’ve done a lot of research on this, and I’ve spent the past couple of weeks talking to Granite Staters all throughout the state from every party,” he stated.
However, there’s still more! When asked about the 2020 election earlier this month by a voter, Bolduc responded, “I can’t tell that it was stolen or not. I don’t have sufficient knowledge.
In an interview with AWN following the town hall, Bolduc stated that there were “irregularities and fraud,” but that the election was “not stolen.”
It’s been a long road. However, Bolduc seems to have settled on the idea that it’s still a possibility that the 2020 election was rigged, even though it wasn’t.
Returning to Sununu now Although he and Bolduc have had their disagreements—Boldu has referred to Sununu as a “conspiracy theory extreme” and a “globalist world-government guy”—Sununu is now backing him out of what appears to be a feeling of party loyalty. They may not have the same worldview, but given that they are both Republicans, it stands to reason that Sununu would back Bolduc.
But such compromise has a terrible elision of reasoning built right in.
In spite of all the evidence, one of them still holds the opinion—or at the very least, is open to the possibility—that there was election fraud in 2020. There is no policy controversy here. Whether or not the candidate you backed ends up winning, this is about the basic foundation of our democracy: the idea that we hold free and fair elections.
Republican leaders other than Sununu have also made errors of similar nature.
Wednesday saw Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin support Arizona’s nominee for governor and well-known election sceptic Kari Lake. Youngkin stated last month regarding his choice: “I am comfortable supporting Republican candidates, and we don’t always agree. I mean, I’ve made it clear that I genuinely believe Joe Biden won the presidential election.
Once more, this isn’t just a dispute about a single policy tenet. Whether the 2020 election was fair and free is at stake in this discussion. You can’t just keep repeating that the candidate you are supporting for a high office truly thinks the previous election was rigged!
The likes of Youngkin and Sununu, both of whom have national aspirations, are attempting to bandage a gaping wound by portraying election denialism as just another policy viewpoint. All the other things doesn’t really matter if you don’t accept the core principles of democracy that have been upheld since the nation was founded.
