@cspanofficial: President Trump called for Alaska U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola (D) to be criminally prosecuted following a New York Times report that her campaign was involved in an effort to recruit another "Dan Sullivan" to enter the race in hopes of pulling votes from Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK). "They said they didn't do it, and we caught them cold," the president told reporters while departing for a campaign stop in Texas. "Mary Peltola should resign from the race. I think she should be prosecuted criminally for what she did." The Times reported that members of the Peltola campaign were involved in efforts to recruit candidates with the same name as her Republican opponent, an allegation the former congresswoman's campaign denied. "It turned out it was a scheme by the Democrats. That's what they do best: they cheat," President Trump said. "I think they should be prosecuted. To me, that's voter fraud at the highest level." Recruiting a candidate with the same name as an opponent is not, by itself, illegal, even if the intent is to confuse voters or draw votes away from the opponent. Sen. Sullivan's campaign accused Ms. Peltola's campaign of "gaslighting" Alaska voters over the alleged scheme. "Alaskans deserve to know the truth. Mary Peltola, her campaign, and her senior advisors colluded with the DSCC, national Democrat lawyers, and Alaska Democrat operatives to recruit a candidate to deliberately deceive and confuse voters, and then repeatedly lied about it," campaign spokesperson Nate Adams said. "Mary Peltola and her campaign have spent months gaslighting Alaskans, denying a scheme they were running all along." The Justice Department filed a lawsuit last week seeking to block certification of the Senate results if Sen. Sullivan loses by fewer votes than the other Dan Sullivan receives, citing concerns about voter confusion. Ms. Peltola called the lawsuit "desperate" and said she has faith in Alaska voters to distinguish between the two candidates. "We've been running great elections for decades. There have never really been any abnormalities or irregularities to speak of," she told MS NOW last week. "I have total confidence in Alaskans' ability to know who they're voting for." #cspan #trump #alaska #dansullivan #midterm #election

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Wednesday 28 October 2026 21:43:32 GMT