GOP Governor: Jokes About 'Crazy' Trump Were Just Jokes

Some Republicans aren't happy with Chris Sununu for poking fun at "crazy" Donald Trump during a Washington, DC, event over the weekend, but the New Hampshire governor says his critics need to lighten up. At the annual Gridiron Dinner's triumphant return after two years off during the pandemic, the Republican governor pretended to reflect on Trump's "sense of integrity" before he said, "I'm just kidding, he's f------ crazy," Politico reports. "The press often will ask me if I think Donald Trump is crazy," he added. "And I’ll say it this way: I don't think he’s so crazy that you could put him in a mental institution. But I think if he were in one, he ain’t getting out!"

Sununu is seen as a potential rival to Trump in 2024, but he insisted Monday that he was joking and doesn't believe Trump is crazy, the New Hampshire Journal reports. "It’s a roast, it’s a comedy roast," he said. "I know some of my words got a bit of a headline yesterday, but I opened by making fun of my father and myself. I made fun of Republicans, I made fun of Joe Biden." Sununu said that anybody criticizing him doesn't understand the Gridiron Dinner, the Hill reports. The Washington Post describes the event as full of "corny jokes, off-key singing" and "skits lampooning the politics of the moment."

Sununu was chosen to deliver the GOP "response" to the comedy. His other targets incuded Ginni Thomas, Mike Lindell, and Sen. Ted Cruz. "You see that beard? He looks like Mel Gibson after a DUI or something," the governor told the crowd of around 600 VIPs. The dinner is held by the Gridiron Club, Washington's oldest journalists' association. Trump attended in 2018, and joked that it was the most fun he'd had with the media since he watched their faces on election night in 2016. This year, President Biden sent in a video saying he wanted to be there, but "the truth is I just couldn’t find a 7-hour-and-37-minutes gap in my schedule." (More Chris Sununu stories.)