New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu wants more GOP candidates to go on the attack against Trump as he praises Chris Christie for going ‘nuclear’ on the ex-President and insists the ‘Trump brand doesn’t work’

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (R) said Republicans need to realize the “Trump brand doesn’t work” as he urged more presidential candidates to attack the ex-president.

Sununu, who closed his own presidential bid earlier this summer, sang praises to former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for his relentless attacks on ex-President Donald Trump. But he said his vote isn’t enough to silence the distant frontrunner in the Republican primary.

The Republican governor advised Republicans to attack Trump, but try not to make it a personal criticism.

“I want to support Republican ideals, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to bend and break the rules, because if you do, you’re setting a precedent for the other side,” Sununu told NBC News Meet the Press host Chuck Todd.

He praised former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, once a close ally of Trump, for going “nuclear” against the ex-president and said other GOP 2024 candidates should follow suit.

“As for the other candidates running for president, I think they need to be a little tougher on Trump,” he added in the Sunday morning interview. “You know, Chris Christie is really going nuclear on him, and God bless Chris, he’s doing a great job with that, exposing a lot of that, which I think is important.”

Sununu continued, “But I think what we saw on that debate stage last week, I think there was still a little too much focus on him.”

“I mean, you let Vivek (Ramaswamy) say he was one of the greatest presidents, but he was going to be better than him,” the governor said. “So it was definitely a strange dynamic. But there’s still a lot of time here.’

Sununu and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp have both voiced their criticism of Trump and have faced little or no political retaliation as others face for breaking with the former president.

Sununu told Todd it’s important to realize that always choosing Trump, especially when you realize he’s wrong, isn’t beneficial in the long run.

“You don’t have to make it personal,” he assured those running for president who want to target the ex-president as well. “If you’re running for president against the former president, it sure is a very strange dynamic.”

He later added that “the Trump brand just doesn’t work,” especially on a local level.

Sununu wanted to see more candidates take the stage at the first presidential debate over the attack on Trump

New Hampshire is the nation’s first state for the primary, but it is also politically divided. While Sununu, the governor, is a Republican, both the senators and two U.S. Representatives for the small state of New England are Democrats, and the state voted blue in 2016 and 2020.

Sununu said local leaders have faced retaliation for their support of Trump.

“I’ve had Republican school board members lose their seats because they felt like they had to constantly answer for being a Trump Republican and everything,” he told Todd. “It’s a negative brand, it evokes a lot of hesitation.”

“So it’s not just the federal seats, it’s the governorships, the school boards, the congressional seats, all of them,” Sununu added.