Todd Blanche embarrasses office of AG

(by Dermot Cole, independent Alaska journalist) dermotcole.com - Trumps attack on alaska election reaches critical point

Blanche, a Trump hack who is only attorney general because [incumbent—whatever that means!—Senator Dan] Sullivan cast a deciding vote for him, was on Face the Nation Sunday, lying about every aspect of this situation, including about whether there are two Dan Sullivans.

If you want to hear the entire sorry performance, click here. cbsnews.com - Todd blanche attroney general face the nation transcript

Blanche lied about the lawsuit he filed. He lied about the Alaska Supreme Court. He lied about the ballot and he lied about federal law.

He appears to be a man who can’t handle the truth.

Blanche emitted a series of farcical statements about the Alaska lawsuit, even saying he couldn’t confirm that Trump ordered the lawsuit, a statement Trump made on camera.

After Face the Nation journalist Margaret Brennan accurately summarized the situation of two Dan Sullivans, Blanche claimed she was lying.

“You described facts that were just simply either at best misleading, but were really a lie to your viewers. It is not two Dan Sullivans, one an incumbent and one running. That's not true,” Blanche said to Brennan.

“The head of the Alaska Election Commission, not – not President Trump, not me, has said that the second Dan Sullivan is running solely to confuse voters, solely to pull votes away from the incumbent senator. OK, so that is something that we're dealing with. It's not just two Dan Sullivans running on the ballot in Alaska. That is not true.

“And, second, President Trump has been talking about what a travesty this is for many, many, many months, and the Department of Justice has been looking at it for many, many, many months, as we should under federal law. And you saw what we did earlier this week, late last week.

“And it was not – it's not to let the federal government take over the Alaska system of selecting their next senator or certifying who's going to be senator. It's asking the court to step in where the Alaska Supreme Court didn't, which is to look at federal law, and, if necessary, to allow a process for Alaska to decide who should be —who should be certified as a winner.”

Brennan replied, correctly, that the Alaska Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that "The assertion that Mr. Sullivan seeks to confuse or misguide voters is not supported by preponderance of evidence."

She showed a picture of the ballot, which makes it clear which Sullivan is which.

Blanche chimed in to claim that the Alaska Supreme Court did not rule on what he claims is federal law about voting.

This exchange followed:


BLANCHE: No, they didn't. They didn't. That's the state law. That's the state law.

BRENNAN: Just to make clear here...

BLANCHE: That's the state law.

BRENNAN: This is how the state – in this country, the states administer the elections. This is how the state came up with the issue and how to handle any confusion. Our viewers are seeing it right now. It's ranked-choice voting.

BLANCHE: I mean, you're not – you're not telling the truth. You're not being honest with the voters.

BRENNAN: They can see that Dan – I'm showing the ballot to the viewers right now.

BLANCHE: You're not.

BRENNAN: It's on the screen. It says Dan S. Sullivan is listed as the incumbent. Why is that – it says incumbent. Why is that not sufficient?

BLANCHE: Well, listen. I don't know if it's sufficient, but I can tell you this, that the director of the Alaska election system has said that it will likely cause confusion.

And so you – you can continue to talk and continue to state facts as you want them to be, but that's different than the way that they actually are. The Alaska Supreme Court did not rule on the federal law that's implicated in every election, and it is true that it is not often that we have to get involved.

But just take a step back. Take a step back and understand what's happening here. There is no dispute that the only reason the second Dan Sullivan is running is to pull votes away in a confusing and inappropriate manner from the Dan Sullivan incumbent, OK?

And the Alaska Supreme Court, when they issued a ruling, they didn't issue a decision yet. We're waiting for that decision to be – to – the opinion to be issued. But, in the meantime, all that we are trying to do as the Department of Justice is make sure that federal law is enforced and upheld if it needs to happen after the election.

BRENNAN: Well, the ballots are out. There's a lot of mail-in ballot voting in Alaska. The ballot's going to look like what we just showed our viewers. They are both on there.

In terms of the question I asked you, I asked if it was President Trump who told you to take this action. When the president said, "I'm the one that said do it," who did he tell to do it?

BLANCHE: So, I don't – 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.

BRENNAN: No, the president of the United States actually said this on camera.

BLANCHE: But make sure that you understand that this was not the...

BRENNAN: He said: "I told them to do it." Did he tell that to you?

BLANCHE: No, that wasn't your question. No. No, he didn't say it on camera.

BRENNAN: Yes, he did.

BLANCHE: He said he told them to do that.

I said I will not talk ever about – no, that wasn't your question, I said. I said – what your question was to me is, did he tell me? And I said to you, I will not talk about communications I have with the president of the United States. I haven't ever, and I won't ever.

But I will tell you this. This is the Department of Justice doing our own research under the law, the Civil Rights Unit in the Department of Justice drafting this lawsuit, and then ultimately we filed the lawsuit. President Trump has been talking about this for months and months and months and months.

BRENNAN: Yes.

BLANCHE: This isn't something new that just came up last week. This is something that's been going on for a long time.

BRENNAN: Why did he file it 11 days before the election?

BLANCHE: Well, we were hopeful that – that the Supreme Court would actually issue an opinion and explain their reasoning. What we knew from their ruling is that they didn't consider federal law. And I'm not judging them for that. It's just a fact.

They didn't consider federal law. So we want a procedure in place that if there is litigation – there may not be, but if there is litigation brought by others after the election because of possible voter confusion, that the ballots are kept in a way that the Alaska state – that the Alaska state election system can determine who the accurate winner is, not the federal government, not President Trump, not me, but the Alaska system, as the law is required – as the law is set out for it to do.

BRENNAN: So the DOJ lawsuit says the defendants, who are the state election board and the ballot-counting review board – quote – "not certify any election result that may be impacted by voter confusion."

The Sullivan ballot listing is not confusing.
The confusion is defined as Senator Sullivan not winning, and had all votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan been cast as said for Senator Sullivan, then he would have won.

BRENNAN: How do you...

BLANCHE: That's not what it says, OK?

BRENNAN: I'm quoting from it.

BLANCHE: What it says is, the way – the way that you can determine...

BRENNAN: You are telling them not to certify it.

BLANCHE: No, no, but you – you – the way you started that...

BRENNAN: What right does the federal government have...

BLANCHE: No, no, we're not saying – we're saying...

BRENNAN: ... telling a state not to certify or how to certify?

BLANCHE: We are not – we are – you know, if you talk the whole time, you're not going to get answers out of me. But if you let me answer your question, I can address your question, OK?

So the – exactly what we want is that there are ways – because of the way that Alaska ballots are set up, where – where voters can vote for more than one candidate, there is a way, potentially – we don't know what's going to happen yet – where it will be obvious from the results and from the ballots that voters were confused.

And that could be obvious from the way that they rank the Dan Sullivans or not including a Dan Sullivan on the ballot. I don't know yet because there hasn't been an election. But all we are doing is trying to put guardrails in place so that if that – this – that happens, there's a system allowed where the ballots are kept in a way so that we can determine whether there was confusion.

It's not saying, don't certify. It's saying, if a court ultimately determines that it was decided because of confusion and not the will of the voters, then we do not think the states should certify, and that's consistent with federal law and consistent with even Alaskan law, if that happens.

BRENNAN: You've been clear in saying you won't talk about your conversations with the president. Who was he referring to when he said, "I'm the one that said do it"?

BLANCHE: I have no idea who he was referring to. And even if I did have an idea, I would most certainly not talk about it.

He's not – what – what the president is saying, and what he clearly has said for the past four months, five months, is that this is a travesty, and this – in this country we should not have a system of elections where it's OK for somebody who is only running with the same name to pull votes away.

BRENNAN: Yes.

BLANCHE: And, by the way, how about we talk about that? I mean, do you disagree with that? Do you think that that's OK? You think that should be allowed in – in our system of government, someone that the – the head of the Alaskan system of voters has said that there is no scenario under which she can certify that voters will not be confused, and she lists a number of reasons why.

BRENNAN: Right.

BLANCHE: That wasn't President Trump and that wasn't me. And the fact that the conversation is about this lawsuit we filed, and not the fact that there's a person running for Senate in the United States in Alaska...

BRENNAN: Yes.

BLANCHE: ... that – that the head of the elections has said is – is only running to confuse voters, that should be the conversation. And it's not. And that's – that's unfortunate. But we're going to make it . . . the conversation.

BRENNAN: Well, the Supreme Court also talked about the fact that the good faith requirement does not appear in the Constitution. So whether it was intended to be confusing or not, they sort of put that aside. Anyway, let me...

BLANCHE: Right. Correct. And so – and that's – that – no, you're totally – you're totally right about that. But that's where they did not consider federal law. You're – you're right that what the Alaska Supreme Court said is even if it's bad faith...

BRENNAN: Yes.

BLANCHE: ... our laws in Alaska, for reasons that, you know, that – not up to them, don't – don't address that. But that's different than federal law, which is why we brought a federal lawsuit.”

The Blanche confirmation vote alone is reason enough to make sure Dan Sullivan never again gets within a mile of public office. This gibbering thug could only have come from the slime pit of Donald Trump.

I mean, my God, don't Republicans have an ounce of IQ, a shred of decency, an iota of competence?

I guess they're just too busy stealing with both hands to care anymore.

Good luck, Mary Peltola!