JUNEAU — U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan defended his stance on the administration of President Donald Trump in response to questions from Alaska lawmakers after his annual address Wednesday, even as he called on them to unanimously adopt a resolution opposing one of Trump’s policy ideas.

“In terms of the president and his team, my North Star, in terms of my dealing with those guys, is what’s good for Alaska and what’s good for our country,” Sullivan said. “When they do things that I don’t like, there’s times that I will beat them up in public.”

Sullivan made the comment in response to a question from Anchorage Democratic state Sen. Forrest Dunbar, after a speech in which Sullivan, who is up for reelection this year, extolled Trump and declared Alaska was experiencing a “comeback” under his leadership.

“You said ‘yes’ to Trump many times,” Dunbar said. “I’m wondering if you’re willing to say ‘no.’”

“You want to put out a tweet, smashing them on certain issues or criticizing them?” Sullivan asked in response. “Sometimes that works, but sometimes, if you want results, that’s not always the best way to get results.”

Sullivan listed federal funding freezes and worker layoffs as areas where he disagreed with Trump in recent months. He said his office “made huge impacts on all of those issues,” though he has often refrained from speaking publicly about those topics or responding to questions from reporters about them.

“I push back publicly and in private on all kinds of things — with always the North Star for me, how to be effective for all of you, for the people I represent and for my country,” said Sullivan.

Sullivan’s speech surveyed many familiar themes. He decried former President Joe Biden’s past environmental policies, which he said hindered resource development in Alaska; he celebrated Trump’s executive order seeking to expand the state’s resource industries; he promised progress on a long-sought natural gas pipeline; he praised a GOP-backed bill that extended tax cuts first enacted in 2017; he downplayed lawmakers’ concerns over cuts to Medicaid enacted to pay for those tax cuts; he criticized Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, for blocking legislative provisions that would have benefited Alaska; and he lauded a new rural health program that he said would direct more than $1 billion in new federal funding to the state.

Sullivan’s speech focused primarily on areas where he said he agrees with the president. But he called on the Legislature to pass a resolution opposing Trump’s move to charge $100,000 for visas that are used by educators coming to Alaska from other countries, primarily the Philippines, to fill vacant teaching positions in rural districts.

Alaska has increasingly relied on teachers from other countries amid stagnant school funding and other concerns that have made attracting educators to the state from the Lower 48 increasingly difficult. Sullivan said he is working with other members of Alaska’s congressional delegation to seek an exemption to Trump’s visa surcharge.

Around three dozen protesters gathered outside the Capitol ahead of Sullivan’s address, speaking against several of his policy positions. Some lined the hallways as Sullivan entered the Alaska House chamber, holding signs reading, “We the People Do Not Consent.”

“When I entered the U.S. military, 60 years ago, I took an oath to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution,” Juneau resident Paul DeSloover said. “Sen. Sullivan, when he entered the Marines, took the same oath, and he likes to say ‘Semper Fi’ because he’s a Marine. But (it) should be, ‘Semper Timidus,’ because he is a timid coward.”

Erin Jackson-Hill, member of the left-leaning activist group Stand Up Alaska, criticized Sullivan’s support of the SAVE Act, a bill that would require proof of citizenship to vote. Alaska Republican U.S. Rep. Nick Begich also supports the legislation, whereas Alaska Republican U.S. Sen Lisa Murkowski opposes it.

“I call on Sen. Sullivan to show a modicum of the bravery shown by our other senator and stand up and say the SAVE Act is wrong. It will disenfranchise people,” Jackson-Hill said.

Sullivan said in a press availability after the speech that he believes “voting should be easy, and cheating should be hard.” He said he does not believe voter fraud is widespread in Alaska, but that it is elsewhere in the country.

“I think having an ID requirement that makes sure that the people who are voting in our country are Americans is not unreasonable,” Sullivan said. “Even though it’s not a big issue here, it is a big issue in other parts of the country. And I’m a senator for Alaska, but I’m also a senator for America.”

Reviews both nationwide and in Alaska have found that voting by noncitizens is exceedingly rare.

In response to a question from a reporter, Sullivan criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minneapolis. He said he supports “deporting illegals with violent criminal records.”

“ICE needs to refine its techniques and tactics. It was horrendous, regardless of the situation, in my view, that two Americans were killed,” said Sullivan. “That should not have happened. I think there’s practices that they need to learn from. At the same time, I strongly support our law enforcement.”

The Daily News’ Iris Samuels reported from Anchorage and Mari Kanagy reported from Juneau.

Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich must choose between complicity and commitment to their fundamental constitutional obligations as legislators. Like so many scandals before, the root cause and means of correction for our current national crisis resides in the deliberative body, not the executive.

It’s been nearly 25 years since energy giant Enron filed for bankruptcy. The company collapsed after it was discovered that CEO Kenneth Lay and other executives had concealed massive debt through fraudulent accounting practices. Billions disappeared from pension plans and retirement accounts of ordinary people across the country.

Executives, like Mr. Lay, capture our attention with their boundless capacity to believe in themselves to the very end, even as the lies, abuse and secrets finally catch up with them.

Despite the coverage they receive, such leaders are really a symptom of a more serious underlying autoimmune disease: a systemic failure of the organization’s policymaking and oversight body.

Time and again, boards that could prevent or contain executive misconduct are caught up in the success of the moment, blinded by groupthink, constrained by the perceived necessities of competitive edge and public image, and passive in response to a forceful leader considered integral to the organization’s success.

The U.S. government provides an unparalleled example of this dual failure of executive leadership and legislative oversight.

President Trump has:

• Been found civilly liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll and is the subject of numerous credible allegations of sexual misconduct.

• Incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters, threatened the vice president and members of Congress in an attempt to interfere with the peaceful transition of power, and later pardoned or commuted the sentences of all those criminally convicted of violence against D.C. and Capitol police during the attack.

• Openly profited off the presidency through the use of cryptocurrency pay-for-play political schemes to the tune of billions of dollars.

• Weaponized departments of the federal government to target his personal enemies.

• Terrorized lawful immigrants and U.S. citizens and stoked domestic conflict through the use of militarized and masked federal police forces in the name of crime reduction and immigration enforcement.

• Threatened our allies with military action in contravention of ratified U.S. treaties and committed acts of war without congressional approval.

• Through his Department of Justice, illegally concealed the names of possible co-conspirators in a case of child sex trafficking associated with the highest echelons in our society, a case in which the president himself is potentially implicated.

Congress is the United States’ board of directors. It is responsible for investigating executive misconduct and, if warranted, impeaching and removing the president and cabinet members.

Members of Congress who refuse to perform their constitutional duties of oversight share responsibility for President Trump’s actions.

That Sen. Sullivan and Rep. Begich belong to the same party as the president is irrelevant. No one considers it a valid excuse if trustees happen to belong to the same political party as the executive leadership they are charged with overseeing. The job remains the same: oversight, accountability, exercise of budgetary authority and policymaking.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, often alone in her party, has stood up to the Trump administration, modeling the independent-minded leadership we need from all members of the legislative branch.

The United States of America is not a large energy company. Much more is at stake. Innocent people in Alaska and across the nation and world will suffer even more if Republican legislators, including Sen. Sullivan and Rep. Begich, refuse to investigate and fulfill their oath to check the abuse of executive power.

If the Alaska delegation does not act decisively now, they will never be able to wash their hands of these things. The stench of President Trump’s actions will remain with them long after their service to our state has ended.

Joel Potter is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

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