Psaki Attacks Trump, DOJ For Investigating Fake Dan Sullivan In Alaska Senate Race

Alex Christy
August 20th, 2026 3:10 PM

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MS NOW’s Jen Psaki attacked President Trump and the Justice Department on Wednesday’s edition of The Briefing for launching an investigation into whether Alaskan GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan is running a deception operation to try to take votes away from the GOP incumbent senator of the same. Psaki portrayed this as just another instance of a politicized DOJ but naturally declined to mention any of the several pieces of evidence that point to Fake Sullivan being a fraud.

Psaki began by setting the scene by recapping Alaska’s primary ahead of its ranked choice voting general election in November, “Well, last night, Alaska held its nonpartisan primary, where Democrats and Republicans run together in the same race, and the top four candidates then advanced to the general election. That primary was essentially an early test of how well Democratic candidate Mary Peltola would perform against incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan.”

Proving more context, Psaki added, “And as of right now Democratic candidate Mary Peltola is leading Senator Dan Sullivan by more than five points, with eight percent—80 percent, sorry, of the vote counted. Now, that result was enough for MS NOW to move our rating for this race from lean Republican to toss up.”

 

 

According to Psaki, concerns about Fake Sullivan are overblown, “Now, heading into this race, Republicans made a very big deal about how another candidate named Dan Sullivan was also running, potentially taking votes away from the sitting Republican senator of the same name. But as you can see, the other Dan Sullivan, is polling at just 2.4 percent, which is less than half of Peltola’s five-point margin of victory.”

Hypothetically, someone could mistakenly vote for Fake Sullivan with their first choice and Real Sullivan with their second, mitigating any concerns, but in an RCV system voters are not required to rank all the candidates. It is therefore possible a Real Sullivan voter might only vote for Fake Sullivan either out of confusion of how RCV works or an unwillingness to give a vote to any of the other three candidates, and as Psaki herself hyped, this appears to be a close race in a low-populated state where every vote is going to count.

As it was, Psaki attacked:

So, what does Donald Trump, the leader of the Republican Party, do to help Dan Sullivan in that race? Is he campaigning with Sullivan in the state he won? Is he tapping his massive war chest to help finance Sullivan's campaign? Of course not. Instead, his Justice Department is trying to help Senator Dan Sullivan by launching a federal investigation into the other Dan Sullivan. NBC News and Reuters both report that the DOJ has now issued grand jury subpoenas to investigate whether the other Dan Sullivan is part of some nefarious plot to steal the election.

Again, Psaki didn’t see what the big deal was, “I mean, sure, why not? The man, the other Dan Sullivan, had just over $8,000 cash on hand as of the last FEC filing and again, barely registered with voters. But hey, maybe if the other Dan Sullivan is under federal investigation, he'll only get one percent of the vote instead of two percent of the vote. So that's what's happening in the Alaska Senate race right now.”

According to The New York Times—not exactly a Trump friendly paper—Fake Sullivan claims to be a Lisa Murkowski-type of moderate Republican, but there are at least nine reasons to be skeptical, including:

  • He’s done “very little campaigning."
  • He’s voted Democrat in each of the three previous presidential elections.
  • He voted for Peltola in her 2022 and 2024 House campaigns and has never voted for Real Sullivan.
  • “He is politically active” and has attended No Kings rallies.
  • Locals’ history of believing him to be a liberal
  • He has a similar a website design as Real Sullivan.
  • He used Real Sullivan’s middle initial of S instead of his actual middle initial of J when originally filing to run.
  • “He registered as a Republican on the same day he filed to be a candidate."
  • “Longtime Democratic consultant, Amber Lee, helped him file to run, according to metadata from a filing document.”

Psaki, of course, mentioned none of this. Sure, Dan Sullivan is a common name, but the incorrect initial filing should set off all sorts of warning bells, and if it was happening to Democrats, Psaki would be singing a different tune.

Here is a transcript for the August 19 show:

MS NOW The Briefing with Jen Psaki

8/19/2026

9:04 PM ET

JEN PSAKI: Well, last night, Alaska held its nonpartisan primary, where Democrats and Republicans run together in the same race, and the top four candidates then advanced to the general election. That primary was essentially an early test of how well Democratic candidate Mary Peltola would perform against incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan.

And as of right now, Democratic candidate Mary Peltola is leading Senator Dan Sullivan by more than five points, with eight percent—80 percent, sorry, of the vote counted. Now, that result was enough for MS NOW to move our rating for this race from lean Republican to toss up.

Now, heading into this race, Republicans made a very big deal about how another candidate named Dan Sullivan was also running, potentially taking votes away from the sitting Republican senator of the same name. But as you can see, the other Dan Sullivan is polling at just 2.4 percent, which is less than half of Peltola’s five-point margin of victory.

So, what does Donald Trump, the leader of the Republican Party, do to help Dan Sullivan in that race? Is he campaigning with Sullivan in the state he won? Is he tapping his massive war chest to help finance Sullivan's campaign? Of course not. Instead, his Justice Department is trying to help Senator Dan Sullivan by launching a federal investigation into the other Dan Sullivan. NBC News and Reuters both report that the DOJ has now issued grand jury subpoenas to investigate whether the other Dan Sullivan, is part of some nefarious plot to steal the election.

I mean, sure, why not? The man, the other Dan Sullivan, had just over $8,000 cash on hand as of the last FEC filing and again, barely registered with voters. But hey, maybe if the other Dan Sullivan is under federal investigation, he'll only get one percent of the vote instead of two percent of the vote. So that's what's happening in the Alaska Senate race right now. 

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