Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) is warning both former President Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) to stay away from personality attacks of Vice President Kamala Harris , encouraging them to "stick to the issues" at the top of voters' minds for the 2024 election.
Sununu was asked by ABC News's This Week co-anchor Martha Raddatz if Trump "missed an opportunity" for unity and positivity that was displayed by both parties in the wake of the assassination attempt of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, by calling Harris a "true threat to democracy" and "radical," among other things.
"He's missing it now, but hopefully they can get back on track," Sununu said. "I think he was on track for a couple of months there. I think that the change in the campaign has kind of fired him up to go against her, personally."
Sununu said he agreed with Republicans like Vivek Ramaswamy and congressional lawmakers who have called on Trump and other GOP members to "stop with the personal attacks."
"We have too much that we can win on when it comes to issues of policies," the New Hampshire governor said, adding, "That's not helpful at all" when asked about those who have called Harris a "DEI candidate" and commented on her gender.
Vance has also been in the spotlight for comments he made in 2021 about how people with no children should pay more in taxes and recently about " childless cat ladies " who are "miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they wanna make the rest of the country miserable, too."
"I don't think those comments were more helpful," Sununu said Sunday. "They — again, stick to issues. Those are personal attacks that can alienate a huge part of that independent voter block that you need."
Sununu attributed criticism of Vance to his inexperience in Congress as a freshman senator who was elected in the 2022 midterms. He said Vance and Trump need to discuss topics such as inflation and rising crime to connect with voters.
"Those are the things that will drive them to go make a vote for Trump in November and if you stick on those issues, stay away from the insults," Sununu said. "I think, look, he's a younger guy. I think this is all very, very new to him. I mean, he's only been in Washington 18 months. He's an outsider himself."
"I think he's surrounding himself obviously with a lot of the folks in the campaign that kind of get a feel that energy off of those personal attacks, but that ain't what's going to drive the vote," the governor added.
Vance recently apologized to cats for his comment but reiterated support for his prior remarks on The Megyn Kelly Show on SiriusXM on Friday.
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“Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment. I’ve got nothing against cats,” Vance said.
“I know the media wants to attack me and wants me to back down, Megyn, but the simple point that I made is that having children — becoming a father, becoming a mother — I really do think it changes your perspective in a pretty profound way,” the Ohio senator continued.
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