Sullivan claims he once criticized Trump in 2015
I have made the claim in this space that Sen. Dan Sullivan never criticizes President Donald Trump.
On Thursday night, Sullivan had to go back 11 years, before Trump was elected president, to find an instance in which he claimed he “denounced” Trump’s abusive language.
This happened during the Debate for the State broadcast Thursday night.
Alaska Public Media reporter Liz Ruskin asked Sullivan: “President Trump has verbally attacked and mocked many Americans, that includes people with disabilities and women. Why haven’t you denounced his derogatory languagte as aggressively as you have Miss Peltola’s?”
“Oh I have denounced the president’s language on these kind of issues,” said Sullivan. “But let me go back to what Mary Peltola said.”
All he wanted to talk about was the New York Times article on Peltola. He went on at length about Peltola’s abusive language and what he claims is her flawed character. He said she doesn’t respect the gay community, African-Americans, “special needs people” and others, mentioning that he had just been out exercising with Special Olympians. “They’re such a great group of people. How could you denigrate them?”
When he finished, Ruskin asked the question again: “Can you tell us a time that you’ve denounced President Trump’s derogatory language?”
“I’ve denounced it before on, like, his Megyn Kelly comments and other things like that. I believe in respect,” he said.
Trump’s “Megyn Kelly comments” were made in 2015 after Kelly asked Trump in a debate about him insulting women he didn’t like as “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.”
Trump later attacked Kelly by saying, “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”
I have yet to find exactly what Sullivan said after candidate Trump’s remarks in 2015. He never issued a press release about it.
No one defended Trump’s language at the time and Republican denunciations were widespread. It was before Trump’s abusive habits were normalized by his Republican congregation.
I find it striking that Sullivan could think of no instance during Trump’s years as president in which he has denounced Trump’s derogatory language with anything close to the fervor of his attacks on Peltola, the woman Sullivan claims has a flawed character.
It was more than a year after Trump’s “Megyn Kelly comments” that Sullivan made the only real denunciation of Trump that has ever come from him.
It was 10 years ago, after the release of the Hollywood Access tape, that Sullivan claimed Trump was not fit to be president and should step aside for Mike Pence.
Sullivan said all those years ago that 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.
The “reprehensible revelations” about Trump and his disrespect toward women meant that he could not lead in fighting against domestic abuse and violence toward women.
Sullivan abandoned that position after Trump was elected, never mentioning it again.
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