Sununu blames Trump for GOP midterm shellacking

Senate Republican candidate John Sununu says President Trump deserves much of the blame for Republicans’ blowout losses in Tuesday’s election, which will give Democrats their biggest Senate and House majorities in years.

Sununu in an interview with SiriusXM’s “The John Kasich Show” said Trump’s inability to end the months-long conflict with Iran and his failure to “drain the swamp” as he pledged to do in the 2024 campaign cost Republican candidates dearly.

“Now it seems like he or his family is on every transaction and deal that goes on in Washington,” Sununu said. “Those two things, I think, caused people to say, ‘You know, I just can’t vote for a Republican while he’s still in office.'”

Sununu lost the New Hampshire Senate race to Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) by 13 percentage points despite Republican hopes that they had a good chance of stealing the Democratic-held seat.

Sununu represented New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate from 2003 to 2009, when he was defeated by retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)

Trump, however, has blamed GOP candidates for not doing a good enough job of promoting themselves and has argued that he would have carried many of them to victory if he were on the ballot as he was two years ago.

“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday night as the election returns showed a blue wave sweeping across the country.

Vice President Vance on Wednesday cited the war with Iran as the biggest reason why Republicans fared so poorly in this year’s midterm election.

“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Vance wrote in a social media post.

“If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest,” Vance argued.

“But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there,” he said.

But some Republican strategists are acknowledging privately that Democrats’ attacks on Trump’s family business dealings and other allegations of corruption in the Trump administration also moved voters.

Sununu told “The John Kasich Show” that future Republican presidential aspirants such as Vance will suffer political fallout after Republicans’ disastrous showing in the midterms.

“The closer you are to the president, the worse a night it was for you as a potential presidential candidate,” he said.

Sununu predicted that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) would explore a presidential run in the next election cycle to boost her political brand.

“Some people run for president because they really think they can win and that they’ll be a great leader and an important leader for the country. Some people run for president because it’s good for their business model,” he said.

“And I put AOC in the latter category. So, will she test the waters and go through the kabuki? One hundred percent. Because her business model is built around followers and attention,” he added.