The initial findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation report could make the uphill climb of primary challenging Republican President Donald Trump even steeper.
But former two-term Massachusetts governor Bill Weld argued that much-anticipated news of the report won’t impede his likely primary challenge against Trump.
“I wasn’t really counting on the president getting caught in the soup for having said ‘I hope the Russians find more emails’ during the heat of the campaign,” Weld said. “That never grabbed me as an indictable or impeachable offense frankly.”
Weld quickly answered “no” when asked if the news makes his long-shot bid even longer.
On Tuesday, Weld met at the State House with the top Republican in the Granite State, two-term Gov. Chris Sununu.
While he’s a strong supporter of Trump and has close ties to Vice President Mike Pence, Sununu’s a firm believer that New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary remains a level playing field for incumbents and challengers alike.
During his discussion with Sununu, Weld said the governor emphasized that while he’s backing Trump, that “everybody’s’ welcome. This is New Hampshire.”
Sununu spokesman Benjamin Vihstadt said th e governor is “happy to meet with candidates for president – Republicans or Democrats – and welcome them to New Hampshire. As host of the first-in-the-nation Primary, the Granite State does things differently and Gov. Sununu will always take the opportunity to promote New Hampshire to prospective candidates.”
Over the weekend, the first details from Mueller’s nearly two-year-long investigation became public, but did not establish that Trump conspired or colluded with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 presidential election at the expense of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
But Mueller’s long-awaited findings did not take a clear position on whether Trump obstructed justice, with no conclusions that the president committed a crime but also not exonerating him. Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Sunday concluded that Mueller’s report did not contain sufficient evidence to prove that Trump committed obstruction of justice.
Weld – who set up a presidential exploratory committee in February – said the allegations of Russian collusion were “only one of the many, many questions that’s been raised about the president.”
The former governor – who recently returned to the Republican Party after running as the Libertarian Party’s vice presidential nominee in 2016 – said he’ll pull the trigger on deciding on a primary challenge in April.
“I doubt there would be anything to prevent me doing this,” he added confidently. “I’m feeling more comfortable with this all the time.”
Weld made his comments during an interview Monday with the Monitor and NHTalkradio.com during his latest trip to New Hampshire, the state that holds the first primary in the race for the White House.
Sununu’s embrace of a potential Trump challenger isn’t unique among the state’s top Republicans.
Steve Duprey, a former longtime New Hampshire GOP chairman who for years has served as one of the Granite State’s two members of the Republican National Committee, met with Weld on Monday at Revelstoke Coffee in downtown Concord.
“It’s the job of the party to be strictly neutral, to give every candidate a fair shot whether they’re an incumbent or a challenger,” Duprey said.
Duprey, an unofficial historian of the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, said when there’s a Republican in the White House, efforts to show more party support have always been afoot, but they betray the New Hampshire way.
“We are neutral because we give the voters the voice,” Duprey said. “If we didn’t do that, there wouldn’t be any reason to have the primary here.”
Attempts were made unsuccessfully late last year by a couple of high-profile Trump supporters to have the state Republican party formally back the president in the primary as he runs for a second term in the White House.
Steve Stepanek, the new chairman of the NHGOP, is a strong Trump supporter who co-chaired the president’s campaign in New Hampshire in 2016. While he’s vowed to remain neutral in the 2020 primary, he’s been highly critical of Weld in recent months over the former governor’s 2016 decision to serve as the Libertarian Party’s vice presidential nominee.
Duprey said Stepanek is a friend and as a new party chairman, he is learning how to balance personal principles and party pledges.
“He’s a very strong supporter of President Trump,” Duprey said. “He and I speak frequently and I encourage him to make sure that we all follow that neutrality pledge.”