MS NOW host Jonathan Capehart joined PBS News Hour host Geoff Bennett and National Review editor Ramesh Ponnuru on Friday to react to the news that the DOJ is suing to prevent certification in Alaska’s Senate race should the margin end up being small enough where it could be argued that Imposter Dan Sullivan denied Sen. Dan Sullivan a victory. Capehart continued his new hobby of claiming the federal government has “nothing to do with elections, period, anywhere,” despite him previously being a big fan of federal involvement.
Bennett began by wondering, “The Justice Department is now suing to potentially block certification of Alaska's Senate election if the Republican, Dan Sullivan, loses. We have not had an election yet, to be clear. Jonathan, what do you make of this president directing his DOJ? He said that he's the one who told him to do it, to lay the legal groundwork to challenge a possible defeat.”
Capehart began by freaking out, “This disrupts, breaks, whatever word you want to use, all sorts of precedent, all sorts of new ground. One, the president of the United States should not be directing the Department of Justice to do anything.”
Jonathan Capehart continues his newfound respect for federalism in elections. This time about the DOJ and Alaska, "This disrupts, breaks, whatever word you want to use, all sorts of precedent, all sorts of new ground. One, the president of the United States should not be… pic.twitter.com/Ciwd3dtkrU
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) October 24, 2026
He added, “I mean, he's the first president to turn the Department of Justice into his own personal law firm. That is not its role. They are supposed to be about the laws of this country on behalf of the American people. That's one. Two, the executive branch and federal government have nothing to do with elections, period, anywhere.”
Back in August, Capehart and regular co-panelist David Brooks similarly bemoaned the Trump-run federal government trying to play a more active role in elections despite both men arguing in 2022 that Joe Biden’s “voting rights” agenda was so important that it should have led to a “carve-out” in the Senate’s filibuster rules. Capehart has also railed against conservative Supreme Court justices who argue that certain provisions of the Voting Rights Act are no longer justified because it is not the 1960s anymore.
Also on Friday, PBS itself ran the headline, “DOJ has monitored elections for decades. Here's why some state officials are concerned this year.”
As for Capehart, he continued, “And three, you showed—I'm so glad you showed the ballot for everyone to see. It is not going to be difficult to determine which Dan Sullivan, if you want to vote for which one, either one, which one you want to vote for. Because incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan, it's right there in parenthesis. So this is a lawsuit in search of a crisis or chaos, and it is my hope that, whatever happens with this, it is dispatched before the election, before Election Day.”
Bennett then turned to Ponnuru and wondered, “Is this—and we see the ballot there that you were referencing. So, Ramesh, is this a legitimate concern about election integrity with the competing Sullivans, or is this an effort to cast doubt on a election result before voters have even spoken.”
Ponnuru clarified that the DOJ is suing simply if Real Sullivan loses, “Well, the lawsuit is asking for a non-certification in the case that Sullivan, Senator Sullivan, loses by a margin small enough that the votes for the other Dan Sullivan made the difference. So that would be a very unusual kind of circumstance. I think it's unlikely to happen that way. It could be, frankly, that Mary Peltola, the Democrat running, just wins by a larger margin, given the way that the polling is looking. Look, Republicans think that this is a dirty trick that the Democrats have played to sour the election, to taint the election.”
However, Ponnuru ultimately agreed the DOJ lawsuit isn’t likely to go anywhere, “The thing is, though, the Alaska Supreme Court said in June, he stays on the ballot. Both of these Sullivans stay on the ballot. Now, we don't know the court's rule—the reasoning, because it hasn't released that reasoning. It says that's coming out later. But that's sort of the end of the matter legally. As far as I can tell, there's no actual federal hook for the federal government to get involved. So it's hard to see this lawsuit going very far.”
There are too many pieces of evidence to suspect that having two Dan Sullivans is just a coincidence. The most notable is that Fake Sullivan tried to use Real Sullivan’s middle initial of “S” when he filed to run instead of his own “J.” Nobody on the PBS panel wanted to discuss that.
Here is a transcript for the October 23 show:
PBS News Hour
10/23/2026
7:20 PM ET
GEOFF BENNETT: So, the Justice Department is now suing to potentially block certification of Alaska's Senate election if the Republican, Dan Sullivan, loses. We have not had an election yet, to be clear. Jonathan, what do you make of this president directing his DOJ? He said that he's the one who told him to do it, to lay the legal groundwork to challenge a possible defeat.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: This disrupts, breaks, whatever word you want to use, all sorts of precedent, all sorts of new ground. One, the president of the United States should not be directing the Department of Justice to do anything.
I mean, he's the first president to turn the Department of Justice into his own personal law firm. That is not its role. They are supposed to be about the laws of this country on behalf of the American people. That's one. Two, the executive branch and federal government have nothing to do with elections, period, anywhere.
And three, you showed—I'm so glad you showed the ballot for everyone to see. It is not going to be difficult to determine which Dan Sullivan, if you want to vote for which one, either one, which one you want to vote for. Because incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan, it's right there in parenthesis.
So this is a lawsuit in search of a crisis or chaos, and it is my hope that, whatever happens with this, it is dispatched before the election, before Election Day.
BENNETT: Is this—and we see the ballot there that you were referencing. So, Ramesh, is this a legitimate concern about election integrity with the competing Sullivans, or is this an effort to cast doubt on a election result before voters have even spoken?
RAMESH PONNURU: Well, the lawsuit is asking for a non-certification in the case that Sullivan, Senator Sullivan, loses by a margin small enough that the votes for the other Dan Sullivan made the difference. So that would be a very unusual kind of circumstance.
I think it's unlikely to happen that way. It could be, frankly, that Mary Peltola, the Democrat running, just wins by a larger margin, given the way that the polling is looking. Look, Republicans think that this is a dirty trick that the Democrats have played to sour the election, to taint the election.
The thing is, though, the Alaska Supreme Court said in June, he stays on the ballot. Both of these Sullivans stay on the ballot. Now, we don't know the court's rule—the reasoning, because it hasn't released that reasoning. It says that's coming out later. But that's sort of the end of the matter legally.
As far as I can tell, there's no actual federal hook for the federal government to get involved. So it's hard to see this lawsuit going very far.
