Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu on Thursday sparred with his co-hosts on “The View” over how Vice President Kamala Harris became the leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Sununu criticized the Democratic Party for not having a primary process, claiming that delegates were not given the option to choose a candidate after President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 race on July 21. The co-host argued that Democrats were not instructed to endorse Harris but quickly endorsed her as the party's nominee.
“There were three calls between Schumer and Pelosi. Biden said, 'I'm in this election, I'm not dropping out.' There were a couple of calls and then all of a sudden he was removed. And then 48 hours later, all the delegates were told they didn't have the right to choose another candidate and to support Kamala,” Sununu said.
“That's not actually the case,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said in response to Sununu. “The other candidates decided that she was the best choice. That was their decision … But Newsom said, 'I'm not going to challenge this,' and the people who would have challenged him said, 'No, actually, we're not going to challenge her, we actually think so.'
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Sununu presented a scenario in which Republican delegates would pluck Trump out of the running and quickly send former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley to the polls. While his co-hosts suggested that would be a good outcome, Sununu argued that voters should decide the party's nominee, not “elites.”
“That would be terrible for America. But it's terrible because the voters have to decide,” Sununu told his co-hosts, who faced backlash. “It's the voters who have to decide, not the elites.” (RELATED: Sunny Hostin expresses 'discomfort' over Kamala Harris winning the general election instead of Biden)
“Stop calling them the elite!” Goldberg yelled. “It's divisive.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin argued that while voters did not choose a candidate's running mate, Harris earned votes by being Biden's running mate in both 2020 and 2024.
Harris dropped out of the 2020 presidential primary in December 2019 with an average approval rating of 3%. according to Enter Roll Call: The then-presidential candidate received just 844 votes in the primary and zero delegates. according to On to election data.
The vice president had the lowest favorability rating for a vice president in the history of the June 2023 NBC News poll, with a net negative rating of -17. Of the 1,000 people surveyed, 32% had a favorable view of Harris and 49% had an unfavorable view, including 39% with a “very unfavorable view.”
Harris raised $81 million in the first 24 hours of her presidential campaign on July 22, the day after Biden dropped out of the race. By the morning of July 23, just two days after the campaign kicked off, she had secured at least 2,688 delegates, exceeding the number needed to clinch the nomination.
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