Republican Governor Claims Trump’s Latest ‘Extreme’ Attacks Show He’s ‘Nervous His Base Is Going to Leave Him’

CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday interviewed New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (R) and asked him about the latest state of play in the GOP presidential primary.

Tapper noted that Donald Trump is out with a new attack ad against Nikki Haley, whom Sununu has endorsed. After the host played the ad, which accuses Haley of flip-flopping on raising a gas tax when she was governor of South Carolina, Sununu said its message was disingenuous.

“Now, we should note obviously the context, Governor Haley did say she would only raise the gas tax if it was offset by other tax hikes. So that’s the context. But the ad, you know, TV ads, political ads are not known for their nuance and context. If Trump voters are listening and believing these comments. How do you campaign against that?” Tapper asked.

“You don’t worry about it. He’s scared. That’s actually the best part about this ad is that clearly Trump is scared,” Sununu replied, adding:

Clearly, he knows momentum’s on her side. She has a ground game that he doesn’t have: the door knockers, the folks on the phone, the connection. She’s answering questions or doing things that Trump is not and will not do over the next four or five weeks. So, yeah, when he starts spending money on attacking someone directly, you know, he’s very nervous about losing.

And look, when it comes to records, everyone knows Donald Trump’s record. You know, as Republicans, we want that border secure. You know, we want the right fiscal policies in place. We wanted to drain the swamp. He didn’t do any of it. And there’s no, you don’t even have to run ads on that. He just didn’t get it done. You know, it’s funny, when you he was here over the weekend and he spent all this time saying this, this horrible, you know, rhetoric against illegal immigrants and all this sort of thing. And all he’s doing there is trying to spur up his base. He’s nervous his base is going to leave him at this point. That’s why he gets so extreme in some of these speeches he’s giving. And he does it around the immigration issue because he doesn’t want people to remember. By the way, you were there for four years, buddy.

You had a chance to secure the border. You had a chance to make Mexico pay for it, as you told us you would. You didn’t do any of it. So he’s doing everything he can to distract from the fact almost like he wasn’t president. He was in charge for four years and look what didn’t get done. So he’s he’s running scared. He knows that he doesn’t have any momentum. Nikki does. He is. People are smart enough to know that that’s very real. And it isn’t just a Chris Sununu endorsement.

“Nikki is absolutely a rock star on the campaign trail. People like her, they connect with her. They get excited with her. It’s a whole different vibe here. And we’re going to carry that. Like I said, four or five weeks, tough to go. Tough haul, to be sure. But I think she’s going to win this state pretty handily,” Sununu concluded.

Watch the full clip above via CNN.