New Hampshire’s four Democrats called the address dishonest and dangerous. The Republicans running to replace them, including the candidate Trump endorsed on Monday, had nothing to say at all.
By late Thursday night, all four members of New Hampshire’s federal delegation had publicly condemned President Donald Trump’s primetime address rehashing the results of the 2020 election he lost.
The Republicans campaigning to succeed them had, as of Friday afternoon, said nothing at all.
Except one, who said thank you.
In the roughly 25-minute East Room speech, Trump said he was declassifying intelligence documents that he claimed revealed shocking vulnerabilities in U.S. election infrastructure.
The documents he released did not end up supporting those claims.
He also stopped short of alleging that votes had been altered or results changed while pressing Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, his sweeping elections bill which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Voting rights groups warn the SAVE Act could disenfranchise millions.
Officials from both the Biden and Trump administrations have said there was no intelligence indicating voting machines or vote totals were changed, and election experts said the speech offered little more than rehashed, previously debunked claims.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D) posted her reaction immediately following the speech: “Whatever he may claim, the President lost in 2020,” adding that it has been proven over and over. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D) called the address “cynical, dishonest, and frankly, unhinged,” saying the president is chasing conspiracy theories while gas prices surge and millions of Americans go without healthcare.
Rep. Chris Pappas, the Democratic frontrunner for Shaheen’s open seat, said Trump “thinks he can scare you out of exercising your constitutional right” to vote this November, urging Granite Staters to prove him wrong. Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D) called the speech “yet another desperate and dangerous attempt to spread more lies,” vowing that the Live Free or Die State will never quit the fight to protect the right to vote.
From the Republicans hoping to replace them: nothing.
Former Sens. John E. Sununu and Scott Brown, the two leading candidates in the Republican primary for Shaheen’s seat, had posted nothing about the primetime speech as of Friday afternoon.
Neither had Anthony DiLorenzo, the Portsmouth businessman Trump endorsed Monday—calling him an “America First Patriot”—in the crowded Republican primary for Pappas’s open 1st District seat.
The exception was Lily Tang Williams, the 2024 Republican nominee in the 2nd District now seeking a rematch against Goodlander.
In a Thursday night post, she offered gushing praise for the remarks, saying “Thank you, Mr. President, for putting this on the table.”
The quiet extends well beyond the candidates. The New Hampshire Republican Party’s social media accounts had posted no clips of the speech or any mention of it as of Friday afternoon.
Nationally, the pattern was the same. Fox News carried the 26-minute address in full, but as it ended, chief political anchor Bret Baier told viewers the network was “not in a position to evaluate the accuracy” of the president’s statements and claims.
Even Trump’s chosen candidate has kept him at arm’s length.
Asked in June whether he is “the MAGA candidate” in the 1st District race, DiLorenzo did not fully embrace the label—and added, “I’ll stand up to anybody, including the president.”
Just not today.
