Ex-NH governor: Keep Trump out of GOP debates

Former Gov. John Sununu (R-N.H.) said on Tuesday evening that including Donald Trump in any of the 2016 GOP presidential debates hurts their credibility.

“I think that would be a mistake,” Sununu told host Larry King of Ora TV’s “PoliticKING.”

{mosads}“That becomes not a debate, that becomes a reality show,” he added of Trump, a New York real estate mogul and the host of “The Celebrity Apprentice,” a reality television competition.

News networks are struggling with the size of the GOP’s 2016 presidential field, one of the largest in recent memory.

Sununu said on Tuesday night that he is thankful he is not managing the events and their related details.

“There are certain decisions in this world that you are happy you don’t have to make and I am happy I don’t have to make that one,” he quipped. 

“It’s not my job, it’s above my pay grade right now,” Sununu said. “But the more the merrier.”

“They’ve got to make a decision in terms of how to handle it, something they can handle, something that’s not ungainly, something that doesn’t look horrible, something that doesn’t have 20 people standing on the stage,” he added. 

“So they’ve got to figure out how to deal with it, I pass on that.”

Trump formally launched a presidential campaign from New York City’s Trump Tower last Tuesday.

The billionaire’s entry into the 2016 race expanded the already-large list of Republican contenders to 11 candidates. Another five major candidates are expected to join them.

Fox News announced last month it is limiting the size of its GOP debates to 10 candidates, and it will determine who gets in based on the average of major national polls taken before the event.

CNN, meanwhile, said last month it is divided its Sept. 16 primary debate into two heats – one featuring the top 10 candidates based on polling, and another sporting the rest.