Faulkner: This is POLITICAL DYNAMITE

[0:00] Well, onto this, the Democrat controversy in Michigan we've been discussing is unique. [0:04] The nominee's former primary rival crossing party lines to endorse the Republican for the Senate. [0:10] But what's going on in Alaska? There's controversy brewing there, too. [0:14] It is most unusual. Not one, but two candidates on the ballot named Dan Sullivan. [0:19] Now, that's drawn in President Trump, the Justice Department in Alaska's Republican-led state government to give their takes. [0:25] A federal judge in Alaska just dismissed the Trump administration's lawsuit seeking to block certification of the Senate race if the GOP incumbent loses. [0:34] And former Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola, who's running against the two Dan's, one is a decoy, they say, [0:40] says she's offended by accusations she was involved in recruiting the second Sullivan. [0:45] She denies any role in that, even after a New York Times report said that she was definitely aware of the effort. [0:51] And there were a lot of sources in that report. [0:53] And it's not only the candidates' names that are the same. [0:56] Look at the logos on both campaign official ads. [1:00] Both are blue, both are yellow, even kind of similar thoughts. [1:04] But a Wall Street Journal opinion piece argues the race could and maybe should face a legal challenge. [1:09] Quote, maybe the election results will be clear enough to make litigation unnecessary, [1:14] but especially if Senate control ends up hinging on Alaska, [1:18] the candidacy of decoy Dan can't be allowed to stand. [1:23] President Trump is not mincing words on his feelings about the race as a split vote between the two Dan's could ultimately hand the win to the Democrat. [1:32] It's voter fraud at the highest level. [1:35] And he left the world. [1:36] I mean, nobody can find him now. [1:37] So he knows he's guilty. [1:40] He knows he's guilty. [1:41] It's a fraud of the people. [1:43] That is a total, it's a Democrat con job. [1:48] On the last weekend before his race is decided, the real Dan incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan stopped by the Big Weekend Show. [1:54] People in Alaska and around the country need to know what happened. [1:59] My opponent, Mary Paltola, talks a lot about D.C. corruption. [2:03] Their first order of business literally is to say, how can we rig the system in Alaska, [2:09] cheat Alaskan voters to help throw them, help them throw away their votes, [2:16] and then lie about it to the media, to Alaskans for the last year. [2:22] They're trying to make sure that Alaskans throw away their vote. [2:28] You know, it's unbelievable, Kaylee. [2:30] And, you know, Dan J. Sullivan claimed to be running an authentic campaign. [2:33] Well, my team at Saturday in America sent four emails saying, what are your policies? [2:38] We asked him, what were your campaign events? [2:40] And silence, crickets, four times, no answer. [2:43] Well, apparently he's left town. [2:44] So no one can find him to ask him those questions in the first place. [2:47] And, you know, the question of whether this is going to actually be a prosecutable offense, [2:51] I think is an applicable one. [2:52] There's a federal statute here that says, quote, [2:55] if two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any state [3:00] in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution [3:07] or laws of the United States, he shall be fined or imprisoned not more than 10 years or both. [3:12] That is the applicable statute that would be used in this case. [3:15] And the question is not whether anyone was actually deceived. [3:19] The question is whether there was a conspiracy to deceive in the first place. [3:23] That is all that is necessary to be able to prosecute this case. [3:26] So it'll be really interesting to see if some of those sources are actually called to testify [3:31] if there is a grand jury subpoena, because I think that it could get bad pretty quickly. [3:36] I will say this, though. [3:37] The DOJ has been appropriate in this case. [3:40] They've been cautious. [3:41] They haven't jumped the gun. [3:43] They said we want to look into this. [3:44] They should look into this, obviously. [3:46] But I do want to play this for you, Melissa. [3:48] I did speak with the DOJ yesterday, because they've been so roundly criticized for this. [3:52] But listen to how cautious the DOJ was when I asked if this was illegal. [3:57] There's actually been an investigation going on for a while now into this. [4:01] And again, you know, we're limited in what we can say. [4:03] But the allegations from The New York Times are shocking. [4:07] And it looks, you know, to the lay viewer at least like a conspiracy to try to find someone [4:12] who happened to have the same name. [4:14] They approached, I think, a dozen maybe Dan Sullivans across the state to try to get one of them to jump in. [4:18] Like, this was not just someone doing this on a lark. [4:22] This was organized and orchestrated. [4:24] Look, everyone's been criticizing the DOJ, particularly the left. [4:27] But they are being cautious here. [4:28] And I think it's worth asking questions, [4:30] because while ballot dilution has absolutely been used by both parties, [4:33] to go find a Dan Sullivan, only reachable by land and sea, [4:36] compile a list of names, it is extraordinary. [4:39] Well, I was going to say, this isn't a new tactic, right? [4:41] And Republicans, there was a case in Florida a couple of years ago [4:44] where Republicans did something very similar to this. [4:47] Now, there was someone who went to jail in that instance, [4:49] but it wasn't because of merely putting forth someone with a similar name. [4:53] It was because there was also campaign finance violations that were at play. [4:57] But regardless of the legal question, [5:00] this is not how Democrats in Alaska want to be ending the last few days of this race. [5:06] The fact that this came out in The New York Times brings it a different level of credibility, [5:09] because Democrats can't say, oh, this is just something that's being written, [5:13] you know, in the far-right media. [5:14] They can't dismiss it. [5:16] And voters don't like to feel as though they are being deceived. [5:20] That is something that people do not appreciate from their elected officials [5:24] in whom you are going to put your trust. [5:26] And so, especially people who haven't voted yet, [5:29] to the point that we've been talking earlier, [5:30] are generally the ones who are still undecided. [5:32] And so, for this to be what you've got going into the last final days, [5:36] I think politically is going to be a problem more than I think legally. [5:39] And, you know, Harris, in the Florida case, it was very localized. [5:41] There weren't assertions that it went all the way up to the top of, like, [5:44] let's say, a U.S. Senate candidate. [5:46] That's the assertion here. [5:47] Mary Peltola denies it, but The New York Times, they say otherwise. [5:50] Well, yeah, what does she deny, actually? [5:53] There's going to be a lot of paperwork, interviews, [5:55] and text messages and emails and everything that will come to light [5:58] because The New York Times did such a great job digging into this. [6:02] And look, as a journalist, I can tell you, [6:04] they did the best job in terms of finding out who was at the heart of this. [6:09] Team members, they've got 12 sources. [6:11] They've got one team member who then tried to go, I don't know, off the record. [6:15] You can't really do that posthumously in terms of a story [6:18] unless the story has been killed. [6:20] So it's been interesting how much information they have [6:22] that we don't even know they have yet. [6:24] And so the catch is going to be, yes, the conspiracy, [6:27] but did she lie and actually know more? [6:29] That is really politically dynamite for her. [6:33] So we may not know that before Tuesday, [6:35] but we do have questions about it, [6:37] and that's a problem for this race. [6:39] I would also say this. [6:40] The man at the center of this who took $87,000 [6:43] for the company that he co-founded, [6:45] so that's some money that they can follow, right, Melissa? [6:47] They'll look at that and see who knew what when [6:50] and who spent that cash and where it was supposed to go [6:52] and what he was doing with it. [6:54] But he was using aliases, according to this New York Times report, [6:57] going around looking for the Dan's, looking for the Dan Sullivan. [7:00] Can we find one with the initial S, just like the incumbent? [7:04] Can we find that guy? [7:05] Can you change your name to that? [7:07] Can you put that as your initial? [7:08] I mean, there was a whole lot of things [7:10] that looked like collusion on the ground [7:12] as he was trying to make friends with people [7:14] who could maybe help him out [7:16] looking for the man who could only reach by sea. [7:18] Jason, let me talk to you for one moment [7:20] about the man who could only be reached by land and sea, [7:22] Dan Sullivan, who no one can find now. [7:24] It's crickets. [7:25] So the superior court in Alaska [7:26] did uphold the ballot with the two Dan Sullivans. [7:29] But we dug through some of the documents, [7:31] and here's what my team found. [7:32] They found that this, the superior court [7:34] that upheld this said Mr. Sullivan's letter [7:36] rebutted the NRSC, [7:38] that's the National Republican Senate Committee, [7:41] allegations against him, [7:42] because Tim Scott was saying from the beginning, [7:43] this is a plant. [7:44] They went on to say he asserted his candidacy [7:47] as genuine as he had considered running [7:49] for over a decade, [7:50] that his family are long-time Alaska Republicans, [7:52] and that he had no contact with any agent [7:55] of the campaign of Mary Peltolla. [7:56] That was the premise under which the ballot was upheld. [7:59] Is any of that true? [8:01] Well, it doesn't appear to be true. [8:02] Look, I do some work with the Oversight Project. [8:05] They've taken a deep dive. [8:07] The question then goes to the United States Senate, [8:09] depending on who wins, [8:10] do they actually seat this person? [8:11] There was a similar type of case. [8:14] The allegations were at the gubernatorial level. [8:18] Be sure to like and subscribe [8:20] for all the Fox News latest on YouTube [8:23] and catch full shows streaming now on Fox 1.