Peltola can’t escape talking about Trump
- Rich Moniak
- Jan 23
- 3 min read
By Rich Moniak
Last week, I expressed my displeasure with Sen. Lisa Murkowski for endorsing Sen. Dan Sullivan’s bid for reelection. That doesn’t mean I won’t criticize his most formidable opponent. If former Rep. Mary Peltola really thinks “our future depends on fixing the rigged system in D.C. that’s shutting down Alaska while politicians feather their own nest,” then she must start by speaking out against the self-dealings of President Donald Trump.
And all his other abuses of power.
But based on the priorities described on her campaign website, she wants to avoid all that.
“Like Trump, I am also obsessed with Alaska,” she said at her kick-off event in Anchorage, “and I am happy to work with anyone who has Alaska’s best interests at heart.”
The problem is Trump doesn’t give a hoot about Alaska. To him, everything is about loyalty. Murkowski knows that. As do former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and countless other Republicans who crossed him. And if Alaskans send Peltola to the Senate and a Democrat to the House, he’s likely to turn against the whole state.
The last thing Trump wants is Democratic majorities in both chambers investigating the financial windfalls he’s accrued since taking office. According to a recent NY Times analysis, he and his family have raked in $1.4 billion.
More than half is related to cryptocurrency deals. Last May, 220 people invested a total of $148 million in his crypto token $TRUMP just to have dinner with him at one of his golf resorts. Even a reliable MAGA supporter like Ben Shapiro said the event “raises the question of influence peddling.”
Trump’s sons capitalized on his return to the White House by securing new real estate development deals in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, all of which will carry the Trump “brand.”
Donald Trump Jr. co-founded The Executive Branch, a new private D.C. club open to select members by invitation only. The cost to join is $500K.
If that’s not enough, their new cell phone service, Trump Mobile, plans to release its first cell phone this quarter. And he’s hawking Trump Watches, Trump Sneakers, and Victory 45-47 President Trump cologne.
Peltola was still in office when House Republicans voted to open an impeachment inquiry into the alleged self-dealings of then-President Joe Biden. Although they never held a vote to impeach him, their final report claims he “violated his oaths of office as Vice President by engaging in a conspiracy to peddle influence to enrich his family.” And states “Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ the Bidens sold around the world.”
As Chair of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) was one of the leaders of that investigation. But he’s “not worried about anything the Trumps are doing business-wise, because they’re being transparent.”
Sullivan, who supported the inquiry of Biden, isn’t concerned about it either.
One of the primary duties of a U.S. senator is serve as a check on presidential power. Sullivan understood that when Barack Obama and Biden were in the White House. But he makes believe whatever Trump does is above board.
Sullivan was once a champion of free trade. Now he’s letting Trump usurp Congress’s power to raise taxes by imposing tariffs on almost all foreign imports. In fact, Sullivan justified Trump’s tariffs on Canada with an outlandish lie that enough fentanyl was coming across “the northern border to kill more than 9 million Americans.”
Before Trump took office, Sullivan believed America needed to strongly counter Russian aggression, including by helping Ukraine defend itself. But he dares not question the bizarre on-again, off-again trust Trump places in Russian President Vladimir Putin even though it threatens Ukraine’s very existence.
As I wrote last week, Sullivan boasted about America being “ally rich” compared to Putin. But he didn’t say a word while Trump’s threats of seizing Greenland were giving our European allies a good reason not to trust us.
I could go on. But Peltola knows the whole sordid story. And if she shies away from challenging Sullivan’s passive consent of Trump’s inexcusable acts, voters will have a hard time believing she’s serious about and capable of standing up to the culture of corruption in Congress.
• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector.
