Attorney General Todd Blanche took CNN host Dana Bash to the proverbial woodshed during an October 25, 2026 after the left-leaning network highlighted only the first part of the U.S. Constitution’s Elections Clause in a rather heated, heavyweight exchange on the “State of the Union” program over the topic of the Justice Department lawsuit about two candidates with similar names running for a Senate seat in Alaska.
Bash made a reference to the Alaska Supreme Court’s earlier ruling that allowed Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., who shares a name with a Republican incumbent named Dan Sullivan to stay on the ballot, which led to Blanche pushing back. The attorney general demanded that the network display the rest of the constitutional provision, which gives Congress the authority to both make or alter regulations governing congressional elections.
“Conveniently, you put up the Constitution on your screen, but you highlighted only the first clause. Why don’t you show the next clause to your viewers, which says that Congress is allowed to pass laws to make sure that that happens? Put that back up there,” Blanche stated during the interview. The exchange between the attorney general and the popular CNN anchor is built around Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution.
According to Fox News, this provides state legislatures with the authority to create procedures for congressional elections while permitting Congress to enact or modify those regulations. Blanche then made the case that the second half of the provision supports the federal government’s intervention under existing federal statutes.
“The second clause says that the Congress may at any time by law, and we have a law, and that’s the law that we’re relying on when we filed suit earlier this week,” Blanche went on to say. The lawsuit that has been filed by the DOJ relies on the National Voter Registration Act, stating that allowing a candidate who, according to the agency, intends to confuse voters to remain on the ballot undermines election integrity.
The complaint then asks the court to delay election certification if ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. could alter the final results of the race. The complaint leveled accusations at the challenger of purposefully trying to confuse and mislead voters by using a name similar to the incumbent’s. David Bozell, president of Media Research Center, slammed Bash for her presentation of the constitutional language in a statement to Fox News.
“An anchor who hands viewers half a provision on election integrity is running a magic act, and the trick fell apart on live television. Bash’s job is to give the audience the full text up front. CNN owes its dozens of viewers the whole clause, and a better editor,” Bozell remarked. The lawsuit follows the June 2026 ruling by the Alaska Supreme Court that allowed the challenger to stay on the ballot, despite objections from state election officials.
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The court decided to leave the question of how his name should appear on the ballot to the state’s Division of Elections. “Daniel J. Sullivan decided to run for Senator in 2026 as a Republican with the intention of misleading supporters of Senator Sullivan into voting for him,” the complaint says. President Donald Trump addressed the situation several days prior to Bash’s presentation. The president, while speaking with reporters in Florida, stated that he personally told the Justice Department to pursue legal action. “I’m the one that said, do it,” President Trump said.
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