US Attorney General Todd Blanche defends Alaska Senate election lawsuit

The Department of Justice has faced criticism that its lawsuit is aimed at blocking a Democratic victory in a key race.

President Donald Trump walks past Attorney General Todd Blanche at the White House on October 21 [Alex Brandon/AP Photo]

United States Attorney General Todd Blanche has defended the Department of Justice’s decision to sue to prevent the certification of a Republican loss in Alaska’s tight Senate race.

On Sunday, Blanche did a tour of the morning political shows in the US, making stops at CNN’s State of the Union TV programme and CBS’s Face the Nation.

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In each appearance, he faced pointed questions about the legality of the Justice Department’s efforts, responding, in some cases, with open frustration.

“ Why is this controversial?” Blanche asked CNN host Dana Bash at one point. He proceeded to accuse one of the candidates in the Senate race of intentionally trying to confuse voters.

“We’re going to try to create a situation where that can be remedied,” he said. “That shouldn’t be something that is causing this shock and horror.”

But the Justice Department’s lawsuit , filed on October 22, has been the subject of bipartisan criticism.

Many have accused the administration of President Donald Trump of laying the groundwork to block a Democratic win in the race. Trump himself claimed to have authorised the lawsuit.

“I’m the one who said do it,” he told reporters on Friday.

Inside the Alaska Senate race

During the midterm elections on November 3, citizens in Alaska will be asked to vote in one of the closest Senate races in the country, one which will help decide whether Republicans maintain their majority in the chamber.

Senator Dan S Sullivan, the Republican incumbent, is seeking to defend his seat in the Senate. But he faces fierce competition from former US Representative Mary Peltola, a Democrat.

Also in the running is another candidate named Dan J Sullivan, a former Forest Service employee.

The second Sullivan’s decision to also run has raised concerns that he is a spoiler candidate, whose presence on the ballot is designed to draw votes away from the incumbent.

But the Forest Service worker has denied any such intent. Such allegations, he said, are “entirely false”.

“I am not a registered Democrat, and I have had no conversations whatsoever with the Peltola campaign about my candidacy,” the second Sullivan wrote in a letter to Alaska’s lieutenant governor before the state’s primaries.

“I have considered running for political office for over a decade. I made the decision to formally run for the United States Senate in the upcoming primary election because Senator Sullivan has routinely failed the people of Alaska, and they deserve a better representative. It is my right to do so.”

Four candidates advanced to the final round of voting after Alaska’s August primaries. They included Peltola and both Sullivans. The two men are running as Republicans.

A controversial lawsuit

The Department of Justice has argued that its lawsuit — filed less than two weeks before the midterm elections — is necessary “to protect the integrity” of the election.

Any result in the Senate race, it argues, would be “tainted by the inclusion on the ballot of Daniel J Sullivan”.

The department has therefore called on the US district court in Alaska to issue an order declaring the race’s certification “unlawful” and barring the state from “allowing such a certification to occur”.

Under the US Constitution, only states have the power to administer elections, though Congress has the right to pass regulations concerning federal votes.

It is highly unusual for a presidential administration to inject itself into issues of state election certification — and experts say such a move is likely to be deemed illegal.

Already, in June, Alaska’s Supreme Court ruled that both Sullivans could compete in the Senate race. The state’s Division of Elections has also taken steps to reduce voter confusion.

The November 3 ballot, for instance, will list Dan S Sullivan as the incumbent and as a “registered Republican”.

Dan J Sullivan, meanwhile, will have the suffix “Jr” added to his name, and his party affiliation will be left blank, despite the candidate identifying as Republican.

But in Sunday’s TV appearances, Blanche — who leads the Department of Justice and formerly served as Trump’s personal lawyer — argued that merely having two Sullivans on the ballot is a recipe for confusion.

“It is wrong,” Blanche told CNN. “Putting aside whether we’re going to win or lose in the courts, putting aside what the Alaskan Supreme Court has done, in our system we should not have a candidate who has to worry about another candidate being on the ballot for no other reason than to confuse voters.”

Blanche also denied any impropriety in Trump saying he ordered the lawsuit.

“He’s supposed to make sure that everything in this country is running right, including elections,” Blanche said.

The race for the Senate

Historically, the Department of Justice has embraced a norm of judicial independence, though critics have accused the Trump administration of wielding its prosecutorial powers for political gain.

Bash, the CNN host, raised some of those concerns, pointing to Trump’s comments accusing Democrats of cheating, as well as his history of election denialism.

The president has long denied his loss in the 2020 presidential race, and his supporters sought to block the certification of that election, notably by storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

When Bash pointed to that incident, Blanche chided her: “Oh, you’ve got to stop it with that.”

“Why are you yelling at me?” Bash responded, as the two talked over each other.

“You are not being a real person. Come on, man,” Blanche continued. “That is crazy.”

He also denied that Trump was setting the stage for a contested election if the Democrat Peltola were to win. Instead, he framed the lawsuit as setting the stage for further investigations into any eventual results.

“The relief that we’re seeking — which, again, isn’t to determine who the senator is, it’s not to try to overturn something the state is going to do — it’s just to make sure that the ballots that come in are kept in a way that may allow a court to investigate further,” Blanche said.

Speaking to CBS, Blanche also dodged a question about whether Trump personally asked him to file the lawsuit.

“I will never, ever, ever talk about communications that I have with the president of the United States. I never have, and I never will,” Blanche said.

The race to control the US Senate is expected to be a nail-biter, with the Republicans holding a slim majority at present: They have 53 seats in the 100-member chamber.

Only a third of the Senate’s seats — 35 in total — will be up for grabs in the midterm races, though, as terms in the chamber last six years and are staggered across different election years.

Trump’s Republican Party is projected to face an uphill battle to protect its congressional majorities, amid backlash against the rising cost of living and Trump’s own withering poll numbers.

Roughly seven Senate elections are considered toss-ups, including the Alaska race.

In early October, The New York Times and Siena College released a poll finding Peltola leading the incumbent Sullivan by nearly seven percentage points, one of the widest margins of any of the toss-up states.

美国司法部因提起诉讼而被批评为旨在阻止民主党在一场关键选举中获胜。

10月21日，唐纳德·特朗普总统在白宫走过司法部长托德·布兰奇。[亚历克斯·布兰登/美联社照片]

美国司法部长托德·布兰奇为司法部提起诉讼以阻止阿拉斯加州参议院选举中共和党败选的决定进行了辩护。

周日，布兰奇走访了美国各地的早间政治节目，先后亮相了 CNN 的《国情咨文》电视节目和 CBS 的《面对国家》节目。

列表1/3：特朗普支持率暴跌：这对美国中期选举意味着什么

特朗普政府提起诉讼，试图阻止民主党在阿拉斯加州可能获胜（共3项，此为第2项）

列表 3/3：丹·沙利文诉丹·沙利文：为什么特朗普的司法部要在阿拉斯加提起诉讼？

每次出庭，他都会面临有关司法部举措合法性的尖锐问题，在某些情况下，他会公开表示沮丧。

“这有什么争议的？”布兰奇一度问CNN主持人达娜·巴什。随后，他指责参议院竞选中的一位候选人故意混淆选民视听。

他说：“我们将努力创造一个可以解决这个问题的局面。这不应该成为造成如此震惊和恐慌的原因。”

但司法部于 10 月 22 日提起的诉讼受到了两党人士的批评。

许多人指责唐纳德·特朗普总统的政府为阻止民主党赢得此次选举而铺路。特朗普本人则声称是他授权提起了诉讼。

“是我下令这么做的，”他周五告诉记者。

阿拉斯加州参议员竞选内幕

在 11 月 3 日的中期选举中，阿拉斯加的公民将被要求在全国竞争最激烈的参议院选举之一中投票，这场选举将有助于决定共和党能否保住其在参议院的多数席位。

共和党现任参议员丹·S·沙利文正寻求保住他的参议院席位。但他面临着来自民主党前美国众议员玛丽·佩尔托拉的激烈竞争。

此外，还有一位名叫丹·J·沙利文的候选人，他曾是林务局的雇员。

苏利文二世也决定参选，这引发了人们的担忧，认为他是一名搅局者，他的出现是为了从现任议员手中夺走选票。

但这位林务局工作人员否认有任何此类意图。他说，这些指控“完全是捏造的”。

“我不是注册的民主党人，而且我与佩尔托拉竞选团队就我的候选资格进行过任何对话，”第二位苏利文在阿拉斯加州初选前写给该州副州长的一封信中这样说道。

“十多年来，我一直在考虑竞选公职。我决定正式参加即将到来的美国参议院初选，因为苏利文参议员一再辜负阿拉斯加人民的期望，他们理应拥有更好的代表。这是我的权利。”

阿拉斯加州8月初选后，四名候选人进入最终投票。其中包括佩尔托拉和两位沙利文。这两位沙利文均以共和党人身份参选。

一场备受争议的诉讼

美国司法部辩称，其在中期选举前不到两周提起的诉讼是“为了保护选举的公正性”所必需的。

该组织认为，参议院选举的任何结果都将“因丹尼尔·J·沙利文的名字出现在选票上而受到玷污”。

因此，该部门已要求阿拉斯加州地方法院发布命令，宣布该比赛的认证“非法”，并禁止该州“允许进行此类认证”。

根据美国宪法，只有各州才有权管理选举，但国会有权制定有关联邦选举的法规。

总统行政部门干预州选举认证问题极为罕见——专家表示，这种做法很可能被视为非法。

早在六月份，阿拉斯加州最高法院就裁定，苏利文父子二人均可参加参议员竞选。该州选举部门也已采取措施，减少选民的困惑。

例如，11 月 3 日的选票上会将丹·S·沙利文列为现任议员，并注明他是“注册共和党人”。

与此同时，丹·J·沙利文的名字后面将加上后缀“Jr”，而他的党派归属将留空，尽管这位候选人自称是共和党人。

但在周日的电视节目中，司法部部长、曾担任特朗普私人律师的布兰奇辩称，仅仅在选票上出现两个苏利文的名字就足以造成混乱。

“这是错误的，”布兰奇告诉CNN。“暂且不论我们在法庭上是会输是赢，暂且不论阿拉斯加最高法院已经做出了什么决定，在我们的制度下，不应该有候选人仅仅因为另一个候选人出现在选票上而感到担忧，而这个候选人出现的唯一目的就是混淆选民。”

布兰奇还否认特朗普下令提起诉讼有任何不当行为。

“他的职责是确保这个国家的一切运转正常，包括选举，”布兰奇说。

参议院选举

从历史上看，司法部一直奉行司法独立的原则，但批评人士指责特朗普政府滥用检察权以谋取政治利益。

CNN 主持人巴什提出了其中一些担忧，他指出特朗普曾指责民主党人作弊，以及他否认选举结果的历史。

总统一直否认自己在 2020 年总统大选中落败，他的支持者试图阻止选举结果的认证，尤其是在 2021 年 1 月 6 日冲击美国国会大厦。

当巴什提起那件事时，布兰奇责备她说：“哦，你得停止说那件事了。”

“你为什么对我大喊大叫？”巴什问道，两人同时争执起来。

“你简直不像个真人。拜托，老兄，”布兰奇继续说道。“这太疯狂了。”

他还否认特朗普此举是为了在民主党候选人佩尔托拉胜选后制造选举争议。相反，他将诉讼描述为对最终选举结果进行进一步调查的铺垫。

布兰奇说：“我们寻求的救济——再次强调，这并非是为了确定参议员是谁，也不是为了推翻州政府即将采取的行动——而是为了确保收到的选票得到妥善保存，以便法院能够进行进一步调查。”

在接受哥伦比亚广播公司采访时，布兰奇还回避了有关特朗普是否亲自要求他提起诉讼的问题。

“我永远、永远、永远不会谈论我与美国总统之间的任何沟通。我过去没有，将来也不会，”布兰奇说道。

预计美国参议院的控制权争夺战将十分激烈，目前共和党仅以微弱优势占据多数席位：在100个席位的参议院中，他们拥有53个席位。

不过，由于参议院的任期为六年，并且选举年份错开，因此中期选举中只有参议院三分之一的席位（总共 35 个）需要改选。

由于生活成本上涨引发强烈反弹，以及特朗普本人民调支持率持续下滑，预计特朗普所在的共和党将面临保住国会多数席位的艰巨挑战。

大约有七场参议院选举被认为是势均力敌的，其中包括阿拉斯加州的选举。

10月初，《纽约时报》和锡耶纳学院公布了一项民意调查结果，显示佩尔托拉领先现任议员沙利文近7个百分点，这是所有摇摆州中最大的领先优势之一。