Don Bolduc tried and failed this week to shake his extreme positions on abortion, ending Social Security and Medicare, and election denial.
According to NHPR, Bolduc has spent the week “playing defense — not only against Hassan’s heavy rotation of attack ads, but also against some Republican voters who pressed Bolduc about his changing positions.” WMUR interviewed Bolduc during a campaign stop at the Red Arrow Diner on Monday, where he continued trying to mislead Granite Staters about his extreme anti-choice record. On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that during an event in Hudson, Bolduc doubled down on his election denial by saying he thought the 2020 election may have been stolen. Today, the Keene Sentinel reported that at an event last night, Bolduc “reiterated” his calls to end Social Security and Medicare as we know it.
Associated Press: Another shift for NH GOP Senate candidate on 2020 election
-
Don Bolduc isn’t making a full about-face, but the Republican nominee for Senate in New Hampshire can’t seem to stop shifting his position about whether the 2020 presidential election was legitimate.
-
The retired Army general claimed during his primary campaign that the White House race was stolen from former President Donald Trump. Then, after Bolduc won the Sept. 13 vote, he said it wasn’t. By Monday, at a town hall in Hudson, he said he doesn’t know what happened.
-
“I can’t say that it was stolen or not. I don’t have enough information,” Bolduc said in response to a voter’s question. “But what I can say is that we have irregularity.”
-
Bolduc, running against Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in November, told a second voter who pressed him on the issue that he believes the election was marred by fraud. Then Bolduc suggested that the only way to hold Democrat Joe Biden responsible for what Bolduc considers impeachable offenses as president is to acknowledge his win.
-
[…] Bolduc, a retired Army brigadier general who lives in Stratham, was also asked to clarify his stance on abortion, particularly with regard to an interview with WMUR in which he criticized Hassan’s focus on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn Roe v. Wade.
-
Bolduc added that he agrees with the Supreme Court’s decision to leave abortion up to state legislators.
-
At Tempesta’s on Tuesday, he reiterated this.
-
“Medicare is mismanaged right now, and it needs to be fixed … I want to fix it,” he said.
-
“The privatization is hugely important,” he told the crowd, as quoted in a Sept. 22 article by Politico. “Getting government out of it, getting government money with strings attached out of it.”
WMUR: “Senator [Hassan] continues to hit Republican challenger on abortion issue”
-
“We’re going to get [Hassan] down inside a bunker,” Bolduc said. “I hope she has plenty of water and food, because when we start our counteroffensive, she’s going to have a hard time getting out of that bunker.”
-
But it’s how much that support can grow that will define the Senate race, especially among voters concerned about the issue of abortion.
-
In response, the Hassan campaign released a written statement Monday: “Granite Staters aren’t going to buy Don Bolduc’s latest attempt to cover up his anti-choice record — which makes clear he would be a ‘yes’ vote to ban abortion across the country.”
-
“I will always vote for life, right? I will always vote for life,” Bolduc said.
-
But at times, Bolduc appeared to be playing defense — not only against Hassan’s heavy rotation of attack ads, but also against some Republican voters who pressed Bolduc about his changing positions, particularly on false claims of 2020 election fraud. […]
-
Moments later, though, it was Bolduc himself, hunkering down to explain his stance on abortion. He describes himself as pro-life […] The Hassan campaign has attacked Bolduc on abortion for weeks — most recently highlighting his comment that Hassan should “get over” the Dobbs decision, which eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion.
-
In fact, no voter at the Red Arrow brought up abortion with Bolduc that morning. But several said they were aware that Bolduc had staked out fresh — and sometimes conflicting — positions on a number of issues since winning the Republican primary.
-
“Sometimes you have to walk some stuff back, but you have to figure out what’s his true position on it,” said Doug Smith, owner of a Manchester barbershop.
-
[…] Bolduc promised to support someone other than Mitch McConnell to lead Senate Republicans, when he said he’d be “going after” Dr. Anthony Fauci for unspecified misdeeds at the CDC, and when he promised to investigate the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice.
-
“Congress doesn’t have the cojones to do it. You put me down there, we’re going to grow a pair and do it,” Bolduc said to applause.
-
But it wasn’t all cheers for Bolduc in Hudson, where a few voters challenged him for changing positions on 2020 election fraud. Last year, Bolduc joined 125 retired military officials in signing a letter suggesting the 2020 election was stolen. Last month, Bolduc said new research convinced him that the election wasn’t stolen.