For Chris Sununu, it was a real lesson, in real time, in reality.
The same New Hampshire governor whose endorsement apparently meant squat in the Granite State’s presidential primary got a taste Friday night of what’s almost certainly coming.
And it came compliments of HBO’s Bill Maher.
Sununu is a Republican, but the kind of Republican who hates former President Donald Trump, wants former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to win the GOP nomination (and endorsed her in the primary, to no avail), and even charms the liberal shrews on ABC’s “The View.”
In short, he’s not exactly the Republican base, and in his appearance on “Real Time with Bill Maher,” it showed.
At one point, Maher had to point out, in clinically brutal fashion, where Sununu’s favored candidate stands in the race.
It wasn’t pretty.
According to RedState, Sununu was arguing that Trump is in favor of the March 4 start date for his trial on election interference charges in the District of Columbia.
Sununu’s argument was that, with the mass primary day known as Super Tuesday falling on March 5, the headlines about Democratic persecution of Trump through the legal system will only help the former president.
Will Trump be the 2024 GOP nominee?
All Trump cares about, Sununu said, is “securing the nomination.”
Fellow guest Jessica Tarlov, a Democrat and occasional annoyance on Fox News’ “The Five,” tried to tell Sununu that Trump already has the Republican nomination.
“No, he does not,” Sununu said. “Nikki Haley ’24, and I mean it.”
That’s when Maher stepped in.
“Let’s deal in reality here,” he said. “First of all, Nikki Haley’s not gonna be the nominee. It is Trump. Let’s not argue about stupid things.”
The crowd couldn’t help but laugh at that — liberals like hearing Maher call Republicans “stupid,” even Republicans like Chris Sununu.
When Sununu tried to protest that Maher was acting as though “voters don’t matter,” Maher got deadly serious — and spoke what might be the truest statement about the 2024 GOP primary yet:
“The voters do matter,” he said, “and they’re voting for Trump, overwhelmingly.”
It’s hard to decide which was more telling — the look on Sununu’s face when his smile abruptly vanished, or the dead silence from the audience that greeted Maher’s words.
Chris Sununu simping for Nikki Haley, literally pounding the table for her as he’s being ignored like a misplaced child at the adult’s table
Maher: “Let’s deal in reality. Nikki Haley is not going to be the nominee, it’s going to be Trump. Let’s not argue about stupid things”… pic.twitter.com/nktm13wdb3— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) February 3, 2024
Technically speaking, of course, Sununu has a point. There have only been two actual contests involving voters.
However, judging by their results, and the polling (Haley is facing obliteration in her own state of South Carolina, according to Real Clear Polling’s latest polling average), Trump’s nomination is at this point all but assured.
If there was ever a time when GOP voters might have considered an alternative, that alternative would have been Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and the time would have been before Democratic prosecutors decided to pervert the country’s legal system at the state and federal level, in both civil and criminal court, to attack Trump.
Now, conservatives and Republican voters know damn well how dangerous the Democratic Party has become. It’s a beast that’s caged at the moment, but it can be seen on a regular basis, snarling between the bars of electoral politics.
The lesson Maher gave Sununu on Friday is nothing compared to the lesson blissfully ignorant liberals, lulled by the establishment media, are going to learn on Nov. 5 if they let that beast free.
