New Hampshire
Editor’s Notebook: Chris Sununu and the ‘baked-in’ Trump vote • New Hampshire Bulletin
For just about a decade, Donald Trump has either been president or a candidate for president. Over that time, his list of actions and utterances that would have disqualified any other politician in any other American political era has grown absurdly long, yet there’s always a measure of collective surprise when he crosses a new line.
And when he does, the journalistic parlor game is to search for a “reasonable Republican” who has finally heard enough and is jumping off the Trump train. It seems one of the favored “reasonable Republicans” of the moment is our very own Gov. Chris Sununu.
Over the weekend, Sununu was asked by ABC News’ Martha Raddatz about Trump’s support for using the military against “the enemy from within” – the “radical left lunatics.” New Hampshire’s “reasonable Republican” dismissed the whole thing as “hyperbole,” arguing that Trump “didn’t go after his political enemies” last time and so surely wouldn’t do that during a second term.
In other words, Sununu is betting that “reelection-minded Trump” and “nothing-to-lose Trump” will be exactly the same guy.
Then, on Wednesday, the governor was on CNN, this time so America could find out how a “reasonable Republican” feels about Trump’s one-time chief of staff Gen. John Kelly saying the former president fits the definition of “fascist.” And, according to a report in the Atlantic, the fact that Trump heaped praise on Adolf Hitler’s generals.
Perhaps, wondered CNN host Kate Bolduan and her audience, maybe that would change how Sununu feels about Trump – and maybe even change his vote? “No,” the “reasonable Republican” said in response to those very questions, explaining with a smile that stuff like fascism and being a Hitler stan is “kind of baked into the vote” with “a guy like that.”
Huh.
I get that our departing governor is likely trying out for a cable news pundit role and that the challenge of supporting Trump while not quite championing him is kind of like Republican pundit boot camp, but he’s not walking the tightrope quite as deftly as he thinks he is. I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody who has expressed even a little bit of admiration for Hitler or his generals, but I feel confident that I wouldn’t react with the old grin-and-shrug. The word “indefensible” comes to mind, just for starters before the rage fully sets in, but Sununu went with a full dismissal because, he said, it’s “baked into the vote”? I feel like maybe that’s the kind of thing that should get you fired from your cable news pundit job and blacklisted from “reasonable Republican” circles, right? Or maybe I’m just being naive?
More than 74 million people voted for Donald Trump in 2020, and Chris Sununu is just one of them. And I don’t think anything New Hampshire’s governor says about the 2024 election is going to swing the outcome even a little bit. I don’t know how many Americans are truly undecided in this very close race, but I suspect the answer is not many. It really could go either way, and turnout will be driven primarily by which collective emotion is stronger: the desire to see Trump in office again or the need to make damn sure that doesn’t happen. I believe there are a lot of Democrats who are truly passionate about Kamala Harris’ candidacy, but I don’t think that group is nearly as large as those who just can’t bear the idea of “Trump, the Sequel.”
So the real problem with Sununu’s media junket isn’t really election related. It’s even bigger than that, as big as this election is. What does it say about the state of our politics when a popular governor – who carried 57 percent of the vote in a purple state last time around – can so casually abandon not just political principles but human ones? What matters in an election, “reasonable” supporters like Sununu tell us, is not high character – or even the illusion of high character – but the party letter next to the name and the economic policy boxes that are checked off.
The argument, or hope, seems to be that the dictatorial fantasies and tendencies of Donald Trump will be naturally restrained – by American history, popular opinion, favorable economic conditions, or the imagined influence of “reasonable Republicans.”
What could possibly go wrong? That’s Sununu’s dangerous bet, and he’s all in.
New Hampshire
Massachusetts man in burning car rescued by trooper on N.H. Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s security detail
A Bay State man who was trapped in his vehicle after crashing into a toll plaza was rescued by a trooper who’s on New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s security detail, according to police.
The governor also helped at the chaotic scene, police said, as the group helped the seriously injured 51-year-old man from Massachusetts at the Bedford Toll Plaza on the F.E. Everett Turnpike.
The state trooper assigned to the governor’s security detail helped pull the driver from his burning vehicle. The driver has been identified as Yevgeny Mirman.
At 11:55 a.m. on Tuesday, troopers assigned to the Troop B barracks responded to the single-vehicle crash involving a 2026 Lucid Gravity that struck the toll plaza. 911 callers said the vehicle had caught fire, and someone in the vehicle appeared to be trapped.
While units were responding, a veteran trooper assigned to Ayotte’s security detail came upon the crash, saw that the vehicle was actively on fire, and spotted the driver inside the car.
The trooper then pulled the driver from the burning car through a window. Ayotte, along with other witnesses at the scene, provided assistance to the trooper.
Mirman was transported by ambulance to an area hospital with serious injuries. The name of the trooper is being withheld due to the nature of their position.
“Certainly, their actions were heroic in what they did,” Colonel Mark B. Hall said in a statement. “Without hesitation, they put themselves in danger to render aid to someone who was in need of it.”
Troop B was assisted by members of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, Bedford Fire Department, Litchfield Fire Rescue and Merrimack Fire Rescue.
No charges were immediately filed. However, all aspects of the crash remained under investigation.
Anyone with information that may help the ongoing investigation was asked to contact Trooper Nathan Belanger at Nathan.R.Belanger@dos.nh.gov.
New Hampshire
Texting and driving? Lawmakers want you to pay steeper fines – Monadnock Ledger-Transcript
If you use your cell phone while driving, you may want to think twice — unless you’re willing to pay twice as much.
A bipartisan bill, backed by state law enforcement, would institute higher fines for drivers who use handheld devices behind the wheel. In some cases, motorists could lose their licenses for a month or more.
Sen. Donovan Fenton, a Democrat from Keene who serves on Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s Highway Safety Task Force, pointed to state crash data as reason for the change proposed in his Senate Bill 649
The number of traffic deaths in New Hampshire has crept up over the past few years. In 2023, there were 127 fatalities, at least six of which stemmed from distracted driving, Fenton said.
“Distracted driving is becoming more pronounced, more dangerous and more deadly,” he said at a public hearing last week. “The current penalties are not enough to change behavior, particularly with repeat offenses.”
There were 133 traffic deaths in 2024 and 138 in 2025, according to the Office of Highway Safety. In 2026 so far, thirteen people have died in car crashes.
Fenton’s bill would increase the amount someone has to pay for violating the prohibition on cell phone use while driving. First-time offenders would pay $250 instead of the current $100, and on the second violation in two years, the offender would pay $500. For the third offense in two years, they would pay $750 and lose their license for 30 days. All those penalties could increase if cell phone use behind the wheel is found to be a contributing factor in a car crash.
Current law allows hands-free operation of a cell phone via Bluetooth but prohibits handheld device use. The state collected more than $568,000 in related fines and penalty assessments in the most recent fiscal year.
Distracted driving was a contributing factor in 4,520 of the state’s nearly 28,000 non-fatal crashes in 2023, according to the Department of Safety. That’s a little over 16%, though a report from the task force said officials suspect distracted driving is difficult to track and underreported in more serious collisions. Cell phones are a common culprit in distracted driving.
Ayotte’s task force has highlighted other policies that it says would increase public safety, including doubling the license suspension period for refusing a breathalyzer test.
In the first 10 weeks of 2026, three-quarters of the people arrested for impaired driving in New Hampshire refused to take a breath alcohol test, Ayotte said in a recent press release. The governor has waged a public campaign for the proposed law, Senate Bill 260, which she says would disincentivize drivers from refusing the test.
What’s next: Senate Bill 649 breezed through the Senate earlier this year. The House of Representatives is set to vote on it in the coming weeks after a committee recommended its passage almost unanimously.
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