‘Not Illegal’; ABC, CBS Approve of Alaska Dems Trying to Steal Senate

On Thursday, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS Mornings gave their seals of approval to Alaska Democrats and their handlers in Washington for their efforts to purposefully confuse voters by finding a second Dan Sullivan to run in the Senate race, hoping to steal the Senate for the party their newsrooms support.

In addition to CBS bemoaning President Trump has “pounced” on the story, both went as far as to repeatedly assert it’s “not illegal” and falsely claim it’s “already” been “decided” as fair game (even though it hasn’t been adjudicated on the federal level).

Starting with the obnoxiously anti-Trump Good Morning America, ABC chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce choosing to start with Trump in Ohio “continuing his fixation on [Republican Senator Jon] Husted’s physique,” and “defending his White House construction” after the swipes from former President Obama.

Only then did Bruce pivot to Alaska by saying the Senate race was “being rocked by a report that Democrats used underhanded tactics,” adding, “The New York Times reports the Peltola campaign worked to help recruit this second Dan Sullivan in an effort to confuse voters” after “scour[ing] Alaska, searching for a candidate with the same name as the Republican senator[.]”

Bruce twice touted Peltola’s denials, citing both an October 23 MS NOW appearance and a statement from the campaign.

It was at this point that the Biden regime’s lead apple polisher went full partisan shill, endorsing the behavior: “Boosting spoiler candidates is not unheard of in both parties, and legal experts tell us that recruiting spoiler candidates is not in itself illegal.”

She concluded by citing a Justice Department lawsuit (if the incumbent Sullivan loses) and sitting Governor Mike Dunleavy’s launching a state probe, but dismissed both as pointless because “the Alaska court has already looked into the dispute over his candidacy and found there is nothing illegal about his bid.” 

Pretending to know what she’s talking about, co-host Robin Roberts drove home this narrative: “They have already decided.”

Over at what the liberal, elitist media have insisted is a MAGA network, CBS Mornings split its midterms coverage with one segment about Ohio and Trump vs. Obama (“the President’s clash”) and another about Alaska (“a new controversy”).

Senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang said that, “[d]espite sagging poll numbers, President Trump once again urged voters to envision him on the ballot this coming Tuesday while he and his predecessor traded jabs over former president Obama’s joke last weekend about the Cheesecake Factory.”

She also hyped Trump’s ongoing fascination with the physique of incumbent Ohio Republican Senator John Husted: “Trump campaigned with Ohio Republican Senator Jon Husted and, again, talked up one of his attributes...something he has gone back to in recent weeks.”

As has been the case with Jiang, she provided some balance with this about the Michigan Senate race and more negative headlines for Democratic nominee Abdul el-Sayed (click “expand”):

JIANG: And in the heated Michigan race for Senate, the fiancé of Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens said he’ll support Republican Mike Rogers over Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, who defeated Stevens in the primary. Stevens’s fiancé Jason Turkish told the Detroit News, “We have never seen a candidate for U.S. Senate act so recklessly toward the safety of Jews in the community as we have seen from Abdul.” El-Sayed shook it off.

ABDUL EL-SAYED: There will always be some folks who have different opinions, and they’re welcome to that.

JIANG: But Stevens said she is sticking with El-Sayed.

CONGRESSWOMAN HALEY STEVENS (D-MI) [on CNN’s The Source, 10/28/26]: I still very much want our Democratic nominee — his name is Abdul — to win this race.

JIANG: Congresswoman Stevens also called on El-Sayed to denounce third-party ads not associated with his campaign that she said stoked anti-Semitism. President Trump will be back on the trail today, marking almost a month straight of travel before handing out candy to trick-or-treaters back here at the White House.

As for the Peltola segment, co-host and former Democratic donor Gayle King framed the story as not right vs. wrong, but a partisan squabble:

Alaska’s Republican governor is calling for an investigation of the Democratic Senate nominee there. Mary Peltola is in a very tight race to unseat Republican Senator Dan Sullivan. So, it’s getting a lot of attention because another Dan Sullivan is also running. Ed O’Keefe looks at a new report that has Republicans up in arms.

White House and campaign correspondent Ed O’Keefe joined her in downplaying it as something “President Trump pounced” on while Peltola “pushed back on” it.

O’Keefe framed it as allegations, saying it’s just “[t]he people reporting Peltola’s campaign helped recruit a man named Dan Sullivan to enter the race for Senate as an independent in an attempt to confuse voters and pull away votes from Republican incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan.”

After acknowledging the denials from Peltola and the Justice Department suit, O’Keefe defended the Democrats and Dan J. Sullivan by asserting the Alaska ballot makes it clear which Sullivan is which and what’s happened is “not illegal” because supposedly both parties do it.

King replied she’s seen “some people are viewing this” as “lawful, but...awful,” but O’Keefe and co-host Norah O’Donnell interjected to give this dirty trick a boost by pointing out the ballot should dispel any notion there could be funny business (click “expand”):

O’KEEFE: Now, as you can see, this sample of the Alaska Senate ballot has both incumbent Dan Sullivan and Daniel Sullivan Jr. next to each other there, and you’ll notice it says Dan S. Sullivan, registered Republican incumbent. That’s your senator, Alaska, okay? They use a four-candidate ranked-choice voting method, so some are concerned voters might pick the wrong Sullivan and throw off the rankings. Two things to keep in mind, though: this may be considered by some to be a dirty trick, but it’s not illegal. And this has happened before, kind of. In 2016, the former mayor of Anchorage named Dan Sullivan briefly challenged the state’s other Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski, in a primary. At the time, he said he was hoping to take advantage of the name recognition of Senator Dan Sullivan.

KING: You know, Bill Bratton, the former police commissioner here, used to say, “It may be lawful, but it is kind of awful.” That’s how some people are viewing this.

O’KEEFE: They sure are.

KING: You say dirty trick, people have used it before, but, you know, you’re rushing, you’re going very quickly, and you just check something. So in Alaska, they should read very carefully, because it is marked.

O’KEEFE: Yeah.

KING: It’s very clearly — very clearly marked.

O’KEEFE: We shall see. 

O’DONNELL: We shall see. Ed —

O’KEEFE: The games they play.

KING: Yeah, the games they play.

In contrast, NBC’s Today again provided the balance that CBS’s Bari Weiss has claimed she would bring to the network. At the peacock network, they covered the scandal, but refused to give their opinion.

Co-host Craig Melvin said in a tease that the “key Senate seat [is] now at the center of a major controversy” and “plunged into last-minute chaos...over an alleged effort by Democrats to confuse voters by recruiting a candidate with the same name as the Republican on the ballot.”

Melvin later added in tossing to senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez: “Also this morning, a major controversy is brewing in Alaska where the governor is now launching an investigation after a new report there that’s shaking up a competitive Senate race.”

“Talk about an October surprise. A bombshell report in The New York Times alleging that Democrats plotted to stack the ballot in Alaska. The President is now seizing on it as control of Congress hangs in the balance,” Gutierrez began.

Since it was his only mark, we’ll forgive him for the “seized” line.

Gutierrez kept the rest of it straightforward by summarizing The Times story and soundbites from both sides (click “expand”):

GUTIERREZ: Overnight, while both parties’ biggest stars hit the campaign trail, a bombshell story threatening to upend one of the midterms’ closest races in usually red Alaska.

TRUMP: Oh, it’s terrible what’s happened in Alaska.

GUTIERREZ: The governor there now ordering an investigation after The New York Times reported on an alleged secret Democratic plot to sabotage the campaign of Republican Senator Dan Sullivan. The Times, citing interviews, text messages, and documents, reporting that top aides instructed a staffer for Democrat Mary Peltola to find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as they could. The campaign, according to The Times, worked with the national Democratic Party to find “would-be spoilers” to join the race. Eventually, a retired teacher from a small fishing village named Dan J. Sullivan ran. The current senator, Dan S. Sullivan, weighing in overnight.

SULLIVAN [on FNC’s Hannity, 10/28/26]: Where they were treating Alaskans like they’re kind of stupid.

GUTIERREZ: Peltola’s former campaign manager, who was fired in August, telling The Times Peltola was “definitely aware” of the plot, though the staffer later tried to retract her statements. The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee denies the allegations, and so does the Peltola campaign.

PELTOLA: This is just another distraction. It’s another diversion.

GUTIERREZ: The president condemning Peltola.

TRUMP: She should be removed from the ballot and prosecuted.

(....)

GUTIERREZ: As for Alaska, the Justice Department is also moving forward with its lawsuit seeking to allow the state to not certify the election results if the Republican incumbent, Dan Sullivan, does not win.

Gutierrez also had time for Trump in Ohio and his “days-long war of words with former President Barack Obama.”

On the former, he noted the President “defend[ed] the Republican candidate for governor there, Vivek Ramaswamy, after that ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent.”

In the second hour, Melvin condensed the “bombshell” Alaska story into a news brief.

To see the relevant transcripts from October 29, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).