Deafening silence of Alaska congressional delegation on Trump's unprecedented corruption
Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan were quick to take to social media Friday on the big issues of the day—Murkowski hyped a military airshow at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, while Sullivan celebrated his haircut with a selfie in Fairbanks.
Rep. Don Young, the oldest member of Congress, boasts about having never learned to use a computer. Everything attributed to him on social media comes from his employees and they didn’t post anything.
The Alaska delegation had nothing to say about the unprecedented, historic corruption of President Trump. (That’s not my description. It’s from Sen. Mitt Romney.)
As Trump loyalists, Sullivan and Young should have had the courage to defend Trump’s decision to reward Stone for keeping his mouth shut. Trump attacks those who speak against him and assists those who conceal wrongdoing or look the other way. Sullivan never criticizes Trump.
Murkowski, who says she struggles with supporting Trump, is not in the loyalist camp, but neither is she someone who believes she can speak freely—so she doesn’t.
In February, Murkowski criticized the Trump administration for interfering in the Stone case and trying to get him a lighter sentence, saying “I don’t like this chain of events.”
“The president weighs in, all of a sudden Justice comes back and says, ‘change the deal.’ I think most people in America would look at that and say, ‘hmm, that doesn’t look right.’ And I think they’re are right.”
Forget about “doesn’t look right.” It isn’t right. She didn’t do anything about it.
The advantage enjoyed by the Alaska trio at the moment is that Alaska news organizations are not holding them accountable for what they say or refuse to say. Instead, coverage is confined to self-serving press releases from the delegation. These are almost always carefully tailored documents designed to reveal as little as possible.
Responding to this criticism, reporters from Alaska news organizations will say they can’t get access to Murkowski, Sullivan or Young to hold them accountable because the three don’t want to talk about their reactions to Trump—they only want to talk about military spending, oil drilling and the evils of the Obama administration.
The chief philosopher of Alaska Republicans, predictably claimed on Twitter that Clinton and Obama misused the pardon power. Whataboutery hardly qualifies as a legal or political defense for Trump, but maybe Young and Sullivan will try that line.
The important thing is that a jury convicted Stone of seven felonies connected with attempts to subvert the 2016 election. Stone refused to testify about what he knew, tampered with witnesses and lied to protect Trump.
As a reward, Trump makes a mockery of the justice system and the Alaska delegation talks about air shows and haircuts.
Even Stone admitted the corruption, telling Howard Fineman, Trump “knows I was under enormous pressure to turn on him. It would have eased my situation considerably. But I didn’t.”
At the very least, every Alaska news organization should have a story saying that the delegation refused to comment or make a statement on Trump’s unprecedented, historic corruption or explain why they refused to do so.
At some point, Murkowski may admit she is struggling with the Stone decision and Sullivan will fall back on his impeachment favorite, “Were the president’s actions perfect? No.” And one of Young’s employees will write something that sounds like someone who is not Don Young.
