Sullivan backtracks on 'reprehensible revelations' about Trump in 2016

Four years ago on Oct. 8, Sen. Dan Sullivan said he withdrew his support for Donald Trump after the “reprehensible revelations” on the Access Hollywood tape demonstrated that Trump couldn’t lead by example in fighting sexual assault and domestic violence.

“As for the White House, Donald Trump should step aside,” Sullivan said.

On that same day, Sen. Lisa Murkowski said: "I cannot and will not support Donald Trump for president. He has forfeited the right to be our party's nominee," a statement she has yet to repeat for 2020, though she has struggled.

On that tape, Trump said that since he was famous, he had easy access to any beautiful woman he wanted. “I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” he boasted.

Sullivan responded by saying he had done everything he could as a public official to fight the behavior of guys like Trump. “I’ve worked to encourage men to choose respect and change the culture of abuse against women and children,” he said.

After the election, Sullivan fell into line and became a Trump loyalist, never criticizing Trump. He sometimes claims that he does criticize Trump, but it is always the impersonal sort of comment that bothers no one, including Trump. Sullivan has been timid and tongue-tied about Trump’s incendiary and offensive behavior.

Sullivan even brought one of his own 2017 Tweets with him to Talk of Alaska Tuesday to read aloud, claiming it as proof that he criticized Trump for failing to denounce white supremacists: “Anything less than complete & unambiguous condemnation of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK by the @POTUS is unacceptable. Period.”

Sullivan claimed that his Tweet was probably one of the “strongest condemnations” of Trump that anyone made regarding Trump’s “very fine people on both sides” remark about Charlottesville.

But there has never been a complete and unambiguous condemnation from Trump. Or a complete and unambiguous statement from Sullivan holding Trump accountable. Period.

Sullivan said “it pisses me off” that people challenge him on not attacking white supremacy. But this is deflection. It is Sullivan’s refusal to take issue with Trump’s failure to denounce white supremacists that remains the central issue, including Sullivan’s silence after the debate last week.

“I’m not commenting. I didn’t see the debate,” Sullivan said to a CNN reporter.

In a speech to the Alaska Legislature in 2018, Sullivan referred obliquely to Trump by mentioning "an intemperate tweet or two or three or four," but Sullivan has not risked offending the president on anything from “shithole” nations to his pardon of Roger Stone.

When I wrote about this pattern in 2018, a former employee of Sullivan’s claimed that Sullivan criticized Trump on his tariff war with China, citing this statement as evidence.

But it was not criticism of Trump. It was criticism of an administration policy. “The current proposal advantages Chinese and Russian fishermen over American fishermen and I am sure that was not the administration’s intent,” Sullivan said.

During the interview on Talk of Alaska Tuesday, Lori Townsend asked him if it is his intent to vote for Trump this time and if Trump is fit for the office.

Sullivan paused for a couple of seconds and said, “Yes, I mean look, to me the choice is very clear. Just look at what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are putting forward directly as it relates to Alaska.”

He launched into a two-minute campaign speech mentioning all the usual suspects—resource development, ANWR, military, land access, Obama agenda, jobs, pandemic, Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, bipartisanship, effectiveness, cleaning up the oceans and “my continued focus on domestic violence and sexual assault.”

But Sullivan didn’t want to talk about the “reprehensible revelations” that bothered him in 2016 and made Trump unfit for office.

“Well look, I made a statement on an issue that I care deeply about alright? And I spent my whole political career focused on it. And I’m continuing to focus on it and that’s the very difficult issue of domestic violence and sexual assault in our state, in our country, that saps, I mean it’s just horrible alright. And I feel very, very, very strongly about it. And I do. I’ve passed legislation as a senator to try to combat these big problems, that we have in our state and that we have in our country.”

“That statement was put out based on that strength of my feelings and convictions. The president was the duly elected president. He was overwhelmingly supported by Alaskans and I thought my job, and it is my job, to work with him. He’s proven to be a very strong partner for Alaska. So I think that on this issue I’m certainly gonna support him.”

Sullivan hinted that Trump may have improved on the issue because in 2018 he signed the so-called POWER Act urging lawyers to give free legal help to victims of domestic abuse. But there was no opposition to the bill, there was no money appropriated for it and it is largely symbolic.

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