This story was originally published by Dermot Cole, Reporting from Alaska.
The questions to Sen. Dan Sullivan asked by several majority members of the Legislature Thursday were not rude and he was not treated with disrespect, contrary to claims from the House minority Republicans, who sent him an effusive letter of apology.
“It is with sincere regret that we write to apologize for the discourteous treatment you endured from some of our colleagues during the question-and-answer session following your remarks,” the House apologists wrote.
Speaking on Fairbanks radio with Fairbanks Mayor David Pruhs Friday, Sullivan listened as Pruhs went on at length about the alleged mistreatment of Sullivan.
“You were treated well per se but some of the Juneauite Democrats far left, it doesn’t matter what you do because you’re of the wrong party. They’re like AOC and they denigrate what you do and what you accomplish. And that just pisses me off,” Pruhs said.
I doubt that the mayor listened to the Q&A that followed Sullivan’s speech because there were critical and pointed questions, but Sullivan was not mistreated. On the Frank Turney scale of haranguing public officials, this did not register.
Even Sullivan had no complaints at first, telling reporters Thursday it was the “ultimate town hall.”
That didn’t stop the House Republicans from writing him later to say they wouldn’t blame Sullivan if he decided to never give a speech in Juneau again.
“To say we were merely disappointed would understate the depth of our dismay,” they said.
“While we would fully understand if this experience left you hesitant to return, we earnestly hope it will not deter you from gracing us with your presence and wisdom in the future.”
Sullivan told Pruhs, “The Republican members of the House wrote me a letter yesterday afternoon thanking me for that but also apologizing because, to your point they said, you know some of the questions were rude.”
“The looney left,” interrupted Pruhs.
“I appreciate the letter from our Republican House members, but to be honest I really didn’t notice that, the rudeness. You know, you’re in elected politics, it’s kind of expected,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan then said that he’s been through more stressful environments than having elected officials “asking me questions that were clearly drafted from some far left group.”
This comment tells me that Sullivan is out of touch with a significant number of his constituents.
The questions he faced Thursday reflect widespread worries in Alaska about the Trump administration and Sullivan’s refusal to push back on a wide range of issues.
Questions about the betrayal of Ukraine, the Trump decision to give the world’s richest man control over key parts of government, the attacks on judges, the illegal elimination of jobs and threats to vital services are matters of everyday conversation.
That Sullivan seems to think that legislators aren’t focused on these questions reflects a basic misunderstanding of what is happening in Alaska right now.
Anchorage Sen. Forrest Dunbar prefaced his question to Sullivan with a statement that many Alaskans now believe we are in a constitutional crisis.
“They worry that Congress has abdicated your spending authority, that the Trump administration is now openly defying court orders, and that Elon Musk is illegally firing people, destroying programs mandated by law, delaying contracts and impounding funds that Congress has appropriated. They worry that you have no red line when it comes to Trump or Musk,” he said.
“They worry about a looming nationwide economic downtown caused by the decisions being made in D.C. And most of all they worry about their own families and the benefits that sustain them.”
Dunbar asked Sullivan to say Yes or No to whether he would oppose any cuts to Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security.
“So look I mean the one thing we’re doing to help our country and help our state is this,” said Sullivan, holding up Trump’s executive order to “unleash” Alaska development.
Sullivan’s reply continued:
“And this is really important, OK. Really important. And the last guys (Biden administration) didn’t help us. Let’s just make that one clear. Look, with regard to Medicaid, this is a very important program for Alaska. I’ve been working closely with Sen. Murkowski and Congressman Begich on making sure the leadership in the Congress knows about our unique challenges that we have in Alaska, the high cost of health care, the high cost of living, the cost of living. And some of you might know when we last undertook health care reform in the Congress under budget reconciliation in 2017-2018 there were some things I was able to get in that bill that were very Alaska specific on Medicaid, that were very helpful. So we let our leadership know that we’re unique on a whole host of areas.”
“With regard to Medicaid, I had an amendment that was voted on the floor a couple weeks ago in our budget reconciliation debate about strengthening and improving Medicaid and Medicare, especially for the most vulnerable populations, to keep it for future generations. By the way, that amendment passed. By the way, in terms of politics, little bit of politics, at 2017 the identical amendment passed with over 85 senators voting for it. And that same amendment I couldn’t get one Democrat senator to vote for it. Not sure why, cause a lot of them voted for it just a couple years earlier.”
“So we are working, we are working on all these issues, Sen. Dunbar. And President Trump has also said that we need to strengthen Medicare and Medicaid. But let me make an important point on this that I don’t think gets talked about nearly enough. Almost one-third of Alaskans, 248,000 Alaskans are on the rolls of Medicaid now. OK? We, I think, accept that. Some see it as a good. I don’t see it as a good, OK? I think our goal should be to increase our private sector economy and increase the opportunities for people to move off Medicaid and get private sector insurance from a stronger private sector economy, which is what this is all about.”
He again held up a copy of Trump’s executive order.
“We don’t talk about that enough,” he said.
He never did say if he would oppose any cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.
Dermot Cole has worked as a newspaper reporter, columnist and author in Alaska for more than 40 years. Support his work here.
