Sununu says it's not the government's job to fix cultural issues

January 30, 2023

Republican New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu said on CNN's State of the Union Sunday that it isn't the job of the government to fix cultural issues, echoing comments he made in his inaugural address earlier in the month.

During his inaugural speech, Sununu said, “It’s not right to tell a private business what they can or cannot do. It is not the New Hampshire way to force locally elected and accountable school districts or town councils to bend to the statehouse’s will. That’s not leadership, and it’s not conservative, and it is certainly not freedom.”

Host Dana Bash took Sununu's words as a "thinly veiled shot" at Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, "because he’s made a point of picking fights with private businesses and schools over cultural issues."

Sununu said, “Well, look, I think a lot of Republican leadership is getting behind this idea that we have to fight. I get it, in a leadership position, you have to be willing to have the fight. But we cannot have leadership, that is only about the fight.”

“A lot of Republicans are frustrated, Independents are frustrated because they see this woke culture, this woke cancel culture invading our societies and in our communities,” he went on.

This led him to conclude, “My argument is, the government is not the solution to cultural issues. And we have a cultural problem but the government isn’t going to come with a big heavy army and solve that problem.”