Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said on Sunday he believes Democrats’ alleged conduct in the recent controversy in the Alaska Senate race was “pretty dumb” but “not illegal.”
While speaking with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation, Sanders said attempts from either political party to confuse voters are “not a good thing to do.” The race between Democratic candidate Mary Peltola and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) took a turn last week when the New York Times reported that Democrats in the state allegedly recruited a retired schoolteacher named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. so his name could appear on the ballot and pull votes away from the Republican candidate. The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state but was told by U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason on Sunday it lacked standing.
“Senator Dan Sullivan told CNN today that he will accept the results in the Alaska U.S. Senate race… but we’re already hearing from Republican senator Tim Sheehy of Montana, that there ‘was fraud perpetrated against the people of Alaska, and under no circumstances should Mary Peltola be seated if she wins in a fraudulent manner,’” Brennan said. “She argues, as you know, she has no knowledge of this Democratic effort to stack the ballot in Alaska and to hurt the incumbent, though an aide told the New York Times that the candidate did indeed know. Does all this mess really hurt the Democratic argument that they have the moral high ground on election integrity?”
“Frankly, what the Democrats did in Alaska seems to me to be pretty dumb,” Sanders said. “But it is not illegal; this is what happens in every election.”
The progressive Senator then pivoted to referencing an October report from Politico that found a Republican super PAC allegedly financially supported a socialist candidate. Sanders’s acknowledgment that Democrats’ alleged conduct ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections was “pretty dumb” to an extent lends credence to President Donald Trump’s long-held view that the country’s elections aren’t secure and need reform. The SAVE America Act became a key legislative priority of Trump’s throughout the summer, and allegations of voting fraud perpetrated by illegal immigrants have also been a theme promoted by the White House.
“The federal government does not get involved in state elections, and when you have a president who in fact denied that he lost the election in 2020 against [former President Joe] Biden, for him to be deciding what is a fair election or not is a little bit absurd. The people of Alaska can make that decision themselves,” Sanders finished.
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He also weighed in on Rep. Haley Stevens’s (D-MI) Sunday decision to endorse Republican Michigan Senate nominee Mike Rogers over Abdul el Sayed in a stunning reversal just two days before the midterm elections. Sanders said the party isn’t too divided to “pull off a win” and reiterated the importance of that race, which, like the Alaska contest, is widely seen as critical to Democrats’ chances of retaking control of the upper chamber.
“Haley Stevens lost a very, very close primary. I can understand being upset about that,” he said. “This is the most important midterm election perhaps in the history of the United States, since we are taking on the most dangerous president that we have ever had… so what the people of Michigan understand, sure, we have disagreements with Abdul on this or that issue, but from what I can see, all over the state, people are standing up, they’re going to stand with Abdul.”