Given Gov. Chris Sununu’s recent media schedule, which has featured dozens of cable news interviews, it’s understandable that the details can be a little fuzzy at times.
“Was it on CNN, did you see it? Or was it on some station,” Sununu said last week, trying to recall a particular television appearance. “It was good.”
Sununu’s streak of national media hits was perhaps most intense as he mulled a long-term presidential bid until the spring. But they’ve continued even though he announced earlier this month that he’s not running for president and indicated he likely won’t seek another term in Concord. Now, with his career at a turning point, both politically and professionally, Sununu continues to work hard to raise his profile through cable television.
According to the governor, and supported by the record, he is getting constant invitations from TV buyers at outlets ranging from ABC to Newsmax. But CNN, where he announced he would not run for president in 2024, and where he has since made several appearances to discuss the impeachment of former President Donald Trump, seems especially eager to have him.
In the days since federal prosecutors indicted former President Donald Trump, Sununu has spoken to Anderson Cooper about what he calls the “politicization” of the Justice Department; has stressed the seriousness of the government’s case against Trump with Wolf Blitzer; and he wiggled and weaved as Kaitlan Collins pressed him to say whether, despite his criticism, he would continue with Trump as the Republican presidential nominee.
“Look, I still don’t think he’s the candidate,” Sununu said. “It could be, but it’s a real hypothetical.”
With the possible exception of his prediction that Trump will not win the Republican nomination, there was nothing remarkable about what Sununu said on any of these shows. But when it comes to cable TV pundits, originality isn’t always the point. Often, the job involves playing a role, a role Sununu seems eager to audition for.
“I think there’s a real appeal to any Republican who is willing to look at another Republican and punch him in the nose or praise him in a way that will define what he can do for Republican voters.” Tammy Haddad said. , who runs a Washington-based media consulting firm and spent years as a lead producer on cable talk shows for CNN and MSNBC.
Haddad said Sununu stands out among the current crop of Republicans seeking national attention because he doesn’t lean heavily on talking points and comes across as genuine on camera.
“With Chris Sununu, you see a guy, I don’t want to say more thoughtful, but just a better communicator,” Haddad said.
Cable TV, with its ritual combat and perishable interpretations of what’s in the headlines, was indeed a key backdrop to Sununu’s youth. At the very least, TV pundits helped pay the bills when the Sununu family lived in Virginia in the early 1990s. The governor’s father, John H. Sununu, spent several years as co-anchor of CNN’s Crossfire after losing his job as White House chief of staff to President George HW Bush.
The younger Sununu, who often talks about finding the right opportunity for a job in the private sector, is quick to play down the possibility of working full-time as a cable TV anchor.
“I don’t know if I would be very good at asking the questions,” he said recently.
Still, expect to see a lot more of Sununu on TV. He said he wants to keep his voice prominent during the 2024 Republican presidential primary and said the cable networks seem happy to forget about it.
“They make it very easy, so it’s not a big deal,” Sununu said last week, noting that these days networks send camera crews to his home, rather than waiting for him to head to a studio.
“Lord knows I’m never at a loss for words,” he added.
Right now, one word Sununu says often is “yes” — to any invitation to appear on television.
