“We just can’t pretend that nothing bad happened, or that people just got too excitable,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski said about the Jan. 6 insurrection.

“Something bad happened. And it’s important to lay that out.”

Tell that to Sen. Dan Sullivan, who remains Semper Fidelis to Trump. Sullivan is pretending that nothing bad happened.

He fell in line behind Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell to help block the bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.

Sullivan followed his usual practice, keeping quiet in the corner as long as possible. On Tuesday, Sullivan claimed that he had not made up his mind, Alaska Public Media reported.

“Looking at it right now,” Sullivan told a reporter as he walked away.

So you haven’t decided? he was asked.

“Nope,” said Sullivan, pretending he was thoughtful, not predictable.

There is no question Sullivan had already made up his mind. He just never likes to respond off-the-cuff to questions that make him uncomfortable, perhaps because he never knows what to say.

He’d rather talk about China, increased military spending, icebreakers, great power competition, delays in federal permits, energy dominance and other topics that carry zero political risk for him.

On Thursday, he spoke on the Senate floor for nearly 30 minutes, praising the Senate for “addressing one of the most important challenges we have as a nation.” He was talking about China and the need for more oil and gas and how the Chinese and Russians smile when they see John Kerry speak.

About the insurrection, however, Sullivan retreated to his go-to move, the silent elevator pitch.

“I’m not commenting. I didn’t see the debate,” Sullivan said to a CNN reporter last fall, walking into an elevator and then staring silently at the reporter for 7-8 seconds before the door closed, instead of taking issue with Trump’s failure to condemn white supremacists the day before.

Sullivan had his office write a statement for him following his vote to keep the secrets of Jan. 6 from ever coming to light.

“Considering the broad, in-depth bipartisan work already under way, I do not believe an additional commission is necessary, and risks further dividing Americans at a time when we need to come together.”

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