Attorney General Todd Blanche went off on CNN’s Dana Bash during a fiery Sunday appearance on State of the Union, after she tried to tie the DOJ’s Alaska election lawsuit to a future January 6 replay. Blanche was not having it, and the whole thing was glorious to watch.
Here’s the backstory. The DOJ sued on Friday to block certification of Alaska’s Senate race under a specific set of circumstances involving a candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan, a no-party-affiliated candidate who previously ran in the Republican primary and pulled just 2.5% of the vote. The DOJ’s lawsuit argues that some voters will almost certainly confuse Daniel J. Sullivan with incumbent Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan, handing Democrat Mary Peltola a win in a deep red state. The filing says “some supporters of Senator Sullivan likely will inadvertently vote for Daniel J. Sullivan,” and asks that the results not be certified if the confusion changed the outcome. Blanche said Alaska is “violating federal law and the Constitution by allowing confusion in the ballot.
Pretty straightforward election integrity argument, right? Not to Dana Bash. She asked whether the president is “laying the groundwork for a scenario” that could lead to Trump trying to overturn the election, adding, “the result of that could be, God forbid, what we saw after January 6.” CNN, everybody. Always keeping it classy, always keeping it 2021. You can read more about the DOJ Alaska election lawsuit and the full exchange for yourself.
Blanche erupted. “Oh, stop it. Oh, you got to stop it with that. You are not being a real person. Come on, man!” Bash responded by asking why he was yelling at her, which is a pretty bold move from someone who just accused the Attorney General of plotting an insurrection on live television. Blanche kept going, telling her directly, “Because the president, because the Department of Justice is concerned that there is an absolute fraud happening in Alaska, and he wants to do something about it, you’re saying, Mr. Attorney General, because the President of the United States wants to stop a fraud and confusion in Alaska, is he going to do something crazy? That is not a real question.”
Bash pushed her January 6, 2027 narrative anyway, even while acknowledging there is a legal pathway to challenging the results. Blanche shut that down too. “We’re not laying any groundwork for the president to do that. So your premise, your question, is not true!” He explained clearly that the DOJ is acting on behalf of Alaska voters, and that if a court determines the law was broken, no state should certify a tainted result. “I think we can all agree with that,” he said. Shockingly, Bash did not agree.
Blanche saved his best line for last, telling Bash that it was “so embarrassing to this network” that instead of focusing on real voter confusion in Alaska, she kept dragging January 6 into the conversation. CNN is apparently so locked into its 2021 programming that it cannot process a normal election lawsuit without seeing insurrection around every corner. Blanche heads back to work defending the rule of law. Bash heads back to asking whether every Republican act of governance is secretly a coup. Some things never change.
