4.6 • 7.7K Ratings
🗓️ 12 January 2023
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Although New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu has said that he was a shy child, he has no problem with the spotlight now; there is widespread speculation that he will run for president in 2024. As a popular Republican governor in a purple state, some say Gov. Sununu has the right playbook for putting a Republican back in the White House, while his detractors say he doesn’t stand a chance against former President Donald Trump’s base. Sununu joined David to talk about the power of local government, where he believes President Joe Biden has failed, his thoughts on Trump and his 2024 chances, his stance on abortion, New Hampshire’s place on the primary calendar, and when the public can expect a decision from him on a presidential run.
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0:00.0 | Music |
0:06.0 | And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Axe Files, with your host David Axelrod. |
0:18.0 | Hope you had a good rest from the electoral politics because guess what we're rounding the corner to the presidential campaign. |
0:25.0 | candidates and prospective candidates are beginning to make the rounds and one of them is Chris Sinuno, the Maverick Republican Governor of New Hampshire. |
0:33.0 | We sat down this week to talk about his very interesting life journey as a second generation politician and about this upcoming race and where he thinks a non-conforming Republican like himself would fit in. |
0:56.0 | Governor Sinuno, it's good to see you. |
0:59.0 | David, it is great to be seen and I'm in New York. Where are you? |
1:04.0 | I should be in New York. I'm in Chicago. Long story. Don't want to burden my listeners with it, but you heard it as to why I'm not in New York. |
1:13.0 | But hopefully we'll be in the same place again sometime soon. |
1:16.0 | So listen, there's plenty to talk about, but before we get to all of that, I just want to get a sense more about your own story. |
1:24.0 | Going way back when because I can't I've done 518 of these conversations and I don't think I ever interviewed a Lebanese Greek Salvadoran on my podcast before. |
1:39.0 | So tell me a little bit about that and your family. |
1:42.0 | So it's a combination. So my mom is full Irish and my father is a basic half Lebanese and half Greek and the family emigrated over from the Middle East to El Salvador, a little bit to Costa Rica in Mexico and my grandparents were married in Mexico. |
2:00.0 | And people don't realize my father has a lot of folks know the former governor and White House chief is that if you go up into Spanish speaking household, right, you know, in Queens, right, right down the road here. |
2:08.0 | I'm here in New York, trying to sprinkle a little of the live for your die fairy dust into the people's Republic of New York today. |
2:14.0 | But yeah, he grew up in Queens and then he went to MIT. I was an MIT guy as well and an engineer there and met my mom who was at BU. |
2:22.0 | And then I think this as he tells the story he was living just outside of Boston and they they came up to New Hampshire and he was like, oh, Massachusetts in these these taxes. |
2:31.0 | And I didn't want to go back so they just stopped found a lot and I grew up in in Salem, New Hampshire. That's I'm one of eight kids. I'm never seven. |
2:38.0 | I know I wanted to ask you about that. I I I fear if you're one of eight kids, one of two things happen either you're very quiet or you're very noisy. |
2:47.0 | Yeah, I was super shy. People I was I was create I was that kid that wrapped himself around his mother's leg everywhere we went as kids and being number seven of eight like I wasn't the baby so I didn't get the attention or anything. |
3:00.0 | But I kind of I don't know how and why exactly but I broke through kind of the shyness and became a bit of a of a loudmouth extrovert for lack of a better term. |
3:09.0 | A charming one though. |
... |
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