Republican Gov. Chris Sununu did his best to try to build sympathy for Trump and portray him as the victim ahead of any potential indictments. Sununu made an appearance on this Sunday's State of the Union on CNN, and was asked by host Jake Tapper what his reaction was to Trump announcing that he expects to be charged by the Manhattan DA this coming Tuesday.

Sununu immediately attempted to downplay the charges, gin up support for Trump from his MAGA base, and pretend that Democrats are somehow responsible for all the leaks that have been coming straight from TrumpWorld, not the DA or the police.

SUNUNU: I can tell you, I think it's building a lot of sympathy for the former president. I think the fact that I was with -- coffee this morning with some folks, and they're -- none of them were big Trump supporters, but they all said they felt like he was being attacked.

And, as you pointed out, this is likely some sort of misdemeanor on an issue seven years ago. This has nothing to do with January 6. There's folks out there that still thinks this has something to do with January 6.

So, I just think that the, -- not just the media, but really a lot of the Democrats have misplayed this, in terms of building sympathy for the former president. And it does drastically change the paradigm as we go into the '24 election.

Just because this has nothing to do with his other crimes around January 6th and trying to overturn the election doesn't mean he shouldn't be held accountable for all of the other crimes he's committed. Sununu then tried to absolve Trump of any responsibility if his supporters turn violent again and follow his calls for them to take to the streets before continuing to downplay the charges as a misdemeanor, as opposed to a felony violation of campaign finance law:

TAPPER: The former president has also called for -- quote -- "protests," and he's urging supporters to -- quote -- "take our country back."

Obviously, every American has the constitutional right to peaceful protest, but do you think former President Trump has a special responsibility here to make sure that his supporters protest peacefully after what happened on January 6?

SUNUNU: Well, sure.

Look, if someone's calling for protests, you always want to make sure that they're peaceful. And we know that that's going to happen. And that has happened before. In long history, in recent history in America, folks are always out there protesting what they see as an unjustified arrest or an unjustified indictment.

But you want to make sure it's peaceful. We don't want history to repeat itself in overly negative ways. But -- so, that's going to happen out there. And it's not -- you can't just put it on the former president. It's our responsibility, right, in society, in our communities, to make sure that, if we have something to say, we're doing it in the right way, and making sure we're making a positive effect going forward.

But it is going to be a circus, right? It is going to be a bit of a political circus. There's going to be a lot of unknowns. As you brought up, this could be a misdemeanor. This was tried -- I believe something similar was tried against Edwards, the former presidential, candidate years ago, and got nowhere.

So, this is untested. There's a question about the why they're doing it, something seven years ago. It's not a nothing, but it's moving money and how he claimed money being moved between him and his lawyer. You know, there are other issues that really take precedent in terms of where this country needs to go, what we need to do to get stuff done, how we manage our budgets, how we secure the border.

There's much more pressing issues of the day. It's just unfortunate this has taken the headlines.

What's "unfortunate" is that Republicans like Sununu continue to refuse to hold Trump accountable for anything. And this guy is supposed to be one of the "moderate" ones.