Trump Claims He Ordered DOJ to Block Alaska Senate Certification
The Facts
- President Donald Trump said Friday that he directed the Justice Department to seek to block certification of Alaska's Senate race if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses, as a similarly named candidate appears on the ballot, telling reporters, "I'm the one that said do it."
- The lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in Anchorage, argues that a third candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan, entered the race intending to mislead the incumbent's supporters. The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason, an Obama appointee.
- The department asked the court to bar certification if Sullivan loses and if reallocating all votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan to the senator under the state's ranked-choice tabulation would have produced a win, pending an investigation.
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The Spin
Democratic narrative
A president who orders a lawsuit to block certification before a single vote is counted has announced how he will treat a result he dislikes. Alaska's courts already kept the second Sullivan on the ballot, and elections belong to the states, not to a White House whose Senate candidate trails in polls. A democracy holds only if the side that loses accepts the count.
Republican narrative
A second Dan Sullivan with the incumbent's name, a Republican registration and similar branding looks like a decoy built to bleed votes from the senator and hand the seat to Democrats. Protecting federal elections means acting before a distorted result is certified. Democrats who call every voter ID rule suppression have little to say about a tactic designed to confuse voters.
