John Sununu: Donald Trump, Ben Carson would be ‘another Obama’

Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu said Tuesday that billionaire businessman Donald Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson would be “another Obama” if elected president and that the two candidates “are really entertainment at this point.”

Mr. Sununu had been asked about polling that shows the two men way ahead of the rest of the 2016 GOP field, and he said that voters are now starting to look at issues and predicted a shift would take place over the next month or two.

“If this doesn’t change, I acknowledge it’s a real problem for the party, and it’s a real problem because neither Trump or Carson have no real sense of what the presidency is,” Mr. Sununu said on CNN’s “New Day.” “They would be, in my opinion, another Obama.”

“They would come to the presidency with seductive rhetoric, without understanding the responsibility, without understanding the role of the United States as the last superpower, without understanding how to cope with the difficult issues internationally, and we would have a second disastrous presidency,” said Mr. Sununu, a former chief of staff to President George H.W. Bush.

“And I think the Republican electorate has to begin to understand that leading in public is not the same as leading in the private sector, or leading without experience,” he said. “We had a terrible presidency that we’re going through now. It would be a disaster for the country and a disaster for the party if they don’t come to their senses and select one of the experienced candidates to be the nominee.”

Mr. Sununu predicted “serious candidates” will “start understanding that in order to compete with the free media that Carson and Trump have been getting because they are really entertainment at this point, the serious candidates are going to start pumping up their advertising, talking about their background, talking about their positions, and eventually, I believe, the Republican electorate is [going to] understand that this is an election that is important, that we can’t make a mistake, that we’ve got to nominate someone and if we do nominate someone that has the capacity to be president, they will go ahead and beat Hillary Clinton.”