A former New Hampshire governor and White House chief of staff are urging the GOP to keep billionaire businessman Donald Trump out of the presidential debates limited to just the top 10 most popular because it would turn the serious affairs into a “reality show.”
John Sununu, who was former President George H.W. Bush’s top aide, told PoliticKING host Larry King that the party would be making an error to let Trump participate and not long-time politicians such as Ohio Gov. John Kasich and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
KING: Would it bug you if Donald Trump got included and Kasich and Graham didn’t?
SUNUNU: I think that would be a mistake. I mean, that becomes not a debate. That becomes a reality show.
Sununu was on King’s show, broadcast on Ora.tv, a web-based platform.
Fox News has decided that its first debate, set for August, will limit the number of GOP candidates to 10-12 based on their polling. Candidates who get in late, maybe like Kasich, might get low numbers as a result while Trump’s popularity as a reality show star and political bomb thrower put him near the top of a new poll.
Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu. AP Photo
Sununu said the number of debaters has to be limited so the show doesn’t turn into a circus, but he didn’t offer a solution.
“You know, there are certain decisions in this world that you’re happy you don’t have to make. And, I’m happy I don’t have to make that one. It’s not my job. It’s above my pay grade right now. But, the more the merrier. They’ve gotta make a decision in terms of how to handle it. Something they can handle. Something that’s not ungainly. Something that doesn’t look horrible. Something that doesn’t have twenty people standing on the stage. So they’ve got to figure out how to do it. I pass on that.”
Sununu has a new book about about Bush, The Quiet Man: The Indispensable Presidency of George H.W. Bush.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
