LEBANON — Gov. Chris Sununu thinks it is wrong for a U.S. president to solicit the help of a foreign leader to undermine political enemies, but that doesn’t mean the New Hampshire Republican supports the impeachment inquiry launched against President Donald Trump.
Sununu, who was in Lebanon on Friday to give one of his informal “state of the state” presentations at a lunch organized by the Hanover and Lebanon chambers of commerce, said afterward that “I don’t support the inquiry. … It’s very difficult to make a truthful assessment on either side of what is going on there.”
Asked in an interview later with the Valley News for his opinion on the impeachment inquiry launched by House Democrats over Trump’s phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump pressed him to investigate the role former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter played in a controversial natural gas company in Ukraine, Sununu responded by labeling the situation a “circus.”
He noted that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been trying to avoid an impeachment inquiry pushed by members of her party until she changed her mind in the wake of revelations about the July phone call. But asked if it is permissible for a U.S. president to seek the help of a foreign government to undermine a political foe of the president’s back home, Sununu was unequivocal: “No. I don’t think that’s appropriate at all, frankly,” he said.
Still, Sununu said, Trump’s attempt to enlist the Ukrainian leader’s aid in tarring a potential opponent in the 2020 election “does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense.”
Earler, Sununu used the 40-minute chamber address at the Hilton Garden Inn to extol the achievements of his governorship and blast politicians in Washington.
The governor, who was reelected to a second term in 2018 with 52.8% of the vote, said the social welfare priority of his administration has been to address the opioid crisis, mental health and child welfare issues in the state.
“When I came in, those areas were absolute disasters,” Sununu said, noting what he said has been progress in combating those challenges, such as enlisting regional hospitals to make first contact with people with substance abuse problems and then plugging them into recovery programs and health services.
John Lippman can be reached at jlippman@vnews.com.
