Alaska’s Case of the Two Dan Sullivans; And, Racist Rhetoric in Michigan’s Senate Race

0:00Doordash estimates that that could save customers a cumulative$100 million a year. Of course, that's across all of its customer base. Not just for one person. Not just for one person. You're not saving that much. If you're spending that much money, then there's a problem. Hopefully you're not spending that much on Doordash. Hi, everybody, and welcome to Here's the Scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Vasugan. So today on the show, one of the biggest food delivery services, Doordash, is buying Instacart. You've probably heard of both of them, maybe even use them. How is this going to affect the pricing for customers like you?

0:31Is it going to increase what we're going to have to pay for these types of services? Or could it potentially shave some off the top? We're going to get into all of that coming up. Also, we're talking about Michigan as we're looking ahead to the midterm elections, right? Racist rhetoric now, again, with Abdul El-Sayed. It's heating up in this Senate race in Michigan. So how are voters reacting to what, for instance, the president of the United States is saying about Abdul al-Sayed? We'll get into that, too.

1:04Up first, though, so politics wonks always talk about the October surprise, the last-minute drop that can throw a wrench in an election. And we might have one now in the Alaska Senate race. So it is the case of the Dan Sullivan's plural. The New York Times reported yesterday that top campaign aides for Democrat Senate candidate Mary Peltola specifically searched for a man named Dan Sullivan to run for Senate against Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan. And they found one. The Times reporting, it's based on in part on interviews with Peltola's former campaign manager who told them Peltola was aware of the efforts.

1:43That campaign manager, who was fired in August, later tried to then retract her statements. Peltola's campaign is denying any involvement in either Sullivan campaign. But Republicans, including President Trump, are now accusing the Peltola campaign of voter fraud. There is a lot to get into here. So I want to bring in NBC News senior political reporter, Jane Tim. Hi. Hello. Okay, so this dropped and it's like, what's going on here? Because for a while now, Republicans had been saying that Democrats were a part of getting Dan Sullivan, not the incumbent, on the ticket, on the ballot, I should say.

2:20And now, with this Times reporting, in spite of the fact that the Peltolkamp has denied any involvement, it seems like that is what allegedly happened. Walk us through what we know about this. Yeah, so the New York Times had this explosive reporting that after months of saying they were not involved, that we now learn that the campaign was intimately involved in an effort to recruit spoiler candidates. They had some, you know, sort of a mystery Midwestern consultant who used fake names. I mean, the reporting goes really deep and finds that the Peltola campaign was very much involved in recruiting this candidate.

3:00Now, spoiler candidates are nothing new in politics. I mean, Alaskans probably remember a couple of years ago when a Santa Claus ran in the House, just hoping that his name, which was his legal name, might help him get some votes, you know, change up the voting. But what's what's I think going to hit voters the most is is the denial and now the about face. But the Paltola campaign has denied any involvement. They said in a statement, and I quote, that they have no involvement with either Sullivan campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee also denied involvement. Yeah, it seems to contradict some very detailed reporting from The New York Times.

3:38Interviews, lawsuits, text messages. And a lot of this came from Peltola's former campaign manager who tried to retract her statement, but of course on the record interviews can't be retracted as they were. And also she wanted to file a wrongful termination suit. Clearly there is some animosity between this former campaign manager and the campaign, but it doesn't mean the facts are wrong. But with ranked choice voting, how does it work, for instance, with two Dan Sullivan's on the ticket and then Mary Peltola? Like, would this type of, like, thing even work? That's what I can't get over, Yaz. I don't see how this at all ever benefits the Democratic candidate here.

4:19Yeah. Because if you were confused about which Dan Sullivan you support, you're probably going to rank them next to each other. When ranked choice voting works, you get your top choice voter. And then if someone doesn't win more than 50 percent, they do the ranked choice tabulation. And then they take off the lowest score or lowest vote getter and give those voters their second choice. Which, if you picked the wrong Dan Sullivan, it would go to the right Dan Sullivan. Got it. Interesting. But we don't know if voters necessarily know to do that, for instance, like put both Dan Sullivans there, right?

4:54But if you were confused in your ranking, presumably you would list both Dan Sullivans. OK, so understandably, the president talked about this at his campaign rally in Ohio last night. This is voter fraud at the highest level and the Democrat candidate who is involved in the scheme, Mary Peltola, who said she didn't know anything about it in court. She should be removed from the ballot and prosecuted. And so should the fake Dan Sullivan. So now Alaska's governor is saying he's launching an investigation into whether the Sullivan recruitment efforts were actually illegal. You spoke to several campaign law experts about this story.

5:36What do they say about it? You know, it's dirty, but it's not illegal. It's not illegal. That's what experts are telling me, that there's nothing illegal about encouraging someone else to run for an office that you yourself are also running for or someone on the campaign, as it were. But at the end of the day, it's definitely going to affect how voters feel about a situation, even if it isn't illegal. I can't see any liability here, and neither can the experts that I've interviewed. So then what about the status of this Justice Department lawsuit filed last week, I believe, to block the Alaska election from being certified if Republican, I should say, Dan Sullivan actually loses?

6:12You know, as I've reported, the Department of Justice is on very shaky ground with that lawsuit. There's nothing in the legal code that says the Department of Justice can get involved in the certification of an election. But as they try and cast doubt on an election, as they try and claim there's something crooked in the election, they're going to combine these things absolutely. So I mentioned kind of like the October surprise. Like, how could this potentially affect the vote in Alaska come Tuesday? because, I mean, it seems like Peltola has been leading in the polls. And if she were to win this Senate seat, I mean, this could be a seat that switches power from Republicans to Democrats in D.C.

6:53You know, I've been reporting on politics for 15 years, and my gut tells me this doesn't change anyone's votes. No Peltola supporters are going to now cast a ballot for either Dan Sullivan. But I do think it could affect who decides to come out and vote because people have busy lives. work, kids, getting to the polling place, sometimes it may feel like a lot. And if you're not feeling jazzed about your candidate, maybe you don't turn out. Or frustrated, potentially. Like, if this gets to a point where people are just kind of, like, frustrated with, you know, the dirty politics of it all, do they then just choose to stay home?

7:30Especially in a time and a place where people are just really sick of the status quo. You know, we see incumbency as a flaw right now in American politics. Voters are sick of their incumbents. They're sick of the status quo. This might not make them feel like she's going to be that much of a change. But I think we're going to have to wait to see what the voters say. Jane, Tim, thank you. Thanks. All right. Coming up, we're going to take a look at how Republicans have been using racist and Islamophobic language to attack Michigan Senate candidate Abdul al-Sayed in the final days of the campaign.

8:05We'll be right back.

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9:09And we're back with Here's the Scoop from NBC News. So we're going to go now to Michigan, where the campaign for Senate has taken a very ugly turn. Stumping for Republican candidate Mike Rogers last weekend, President Trump attacked the Democratic candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, accusing him of being a terrorist. I'm here to keep a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator. And that's the fact. We're not going to let that happen. So, of course, this wasn't the first time Trump and other Republican allies have made Islamophobic attacks against al-Sayed. And to be clear, there is no evidence to support Trump's claims.

9:53Anil Syed, who is Muslim, has repeatedly denied that he has any connection to the Muslim Brotherhood. But that racist rhetoric, it's been ramping up and is now shaping the final days of the campaign. So for more on this, I want to bring in NBC News national politics reporter Alan Smith, who's on the ground for us in Michigan. Hi, Alan. Hey, Yaz. How are you? Good. So we just heard some of those kind of Islamophobic and honestly racist remarks from the president of the United States. Have we heard similar stuff from Mike Rogers? You know, yeah, something that I think is very interesting here is that Mike Rogers has not leaned into this quite to the extent of President Trump and some other Republicans who have been in the state, including Republicans who have made remarks like this standing right alongside Mike Rogers.

10:41You know, he said in an interview with our own Kristen Welker on Sunday that he has not called Abdul a terrorist. He has emphasized what he sees as these ties, familial ties, letters that Abdul had written many years ago that he says show that he has supported or that he has family members who have supported the Muslim Brotherhood. But he has not gone quite as far as allies have. He is trying to make the case that this is not about Abdul's religion. It is about an ideology. But it's been increasingly clear at his campaign events this week that this really is the main message that he is trying to get through to voters.

11:20It is not other issues in the campaign that are taking as much time and space at his events as this rhetoric has. Michigan has a big Islamic population, a big Muslim population. is Rogers kind of seeing the writing on the wall with that, not wanting to necessarily alienate that population of potential voters, hence why he's not like leaning in as hard as the president is. Rogers does not want to alienate this part of the electorate because they did play a significant role in Trump being able to carry the state in 2024. A lot of Arab American voters in Michigan did shift into the Republican column because they were upset with Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden and their handling of the war in Gaza.

12:04So these were voters that did play a big role in Trump winning in 2024. And now, this time around, they're expressing deep concerns about this rhetoric. And they're also expressing deep concerns with what Trump has done on a foreign policy, his foreign policy positions in the Middle East. Abdul Syed has been kind of calling out the rhetoric for what it is, i.e. racist and Islamophobic. Here's what he's saying. But there's a reason they keep saying my name, keep pointing to my faith, because they think they can distract you from paying attention to the issues in your own life. How hard it has become to afford a second bag of groceries, how hard it is to fill up your tank.

12:42Is this working like his pushback? So Abdul has really leaned in on two things. When pressed about the Muslim Brotherhood, he has said his loyalty is strictly to the U.S. Constitution, and he has disavowed the group. He has also tried to make the case, as he does there, that Republicans are talking about this stuff because they don't want to talk about the economy, they don't want to talk about the war in Iran, they don't want to talk about tariffs, and they just really don't want to talk about the president's policies. He's also at times made jokes about some of this rhetoric. You know, I was at his rally last night, and he had mentioned that Trump had recently called him Abdul Ramadan.

13:16And he said he was questioning why Trump would be thinking about Ramadan, the month that Muslims fast during. And he said perhaps because grocery prices are so high, he's hoping that all Americans fast so that they don't see the sticker shock at the grocery store. The funny thing about it is, you look at how high our grocery prices have come. I think he's trying to impose Ramadan on everybody else. He's like, listen, if you can't afford your groceries, just pass. All right. You've been talking to voters, I know, on both sides of the aisle. How are they reacting to this? So it's interesting. Voters who had cast ballots for Trump in 2024 are supporting Rogers this time.

13:56You know, they really aren't bringing up the Muslim Brotherhood stuff with Abdul. They're actually just bringing up his Muslim identity broadly and saying that this is concerning and reason enough to not vote for him. You know, one voter I was speaking with after a Rogers event at a university in Michigan earlier this week had just basically said the fact that he has been speaking about his religion in the campaign and has been open about it gives him pause. So I just feel like we should focus on the American values and not on what our religious beliefs are, like Abdul has mentioned. It's not anything specific that he was letting on.

14:35I also think, though, that voters are a little worried to be talking, especially to a reporter, about how they really feel about some of these issues. But I have found it notable that they are willing to very quickly say, well, he is Muslim, and that is giving me pause about voting for him. But to be clear, they're fine with candidates talking about their Christianity when campaigning. Absolutely. So give me the other side. Well, there was an LCAID supporter I was speaking with earlier this week who had said, yeah, this is just rank racism and Islamophobia. The campaign has turned super ugly. And they were countering this with the idea that, you know, Abdul has tried to reach out to different groups of people who might disagree with him, whether it be, you know, Jewish voters on the Democratic side who have expressed concerns with him or Republican voters as he's tried to reach, you know, through Fox News interviews with Jesse Waters, a new ad that he cut to run on Fox and Newsmax, trying to reach out to, you know, Trump supporters who might be a little more skeptical either of the policies that he's enacted during the second administration or who just don't necessarily see Rogers as someone who's in line with MAGA.

15:40Alan Smith, thank you for being there. Thanks, guys. We're going to take a very quick break. And when we are back, DoorDash just added a grocery delivery service to its cart. What that could mean for your wallet. That's next. And also, while you're listening to the ads, I know that you've got a friend who you always order takeout with. Why not also send them this episode so they'll know all about that acquisition as well? I'll see you on the other side.

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17:44And we're back with Here's the Scoop from NBC News. So you might be able to get a twofer on your food deliveries. DoorDash just announced it's buying Instacart, the service that brings groceries right to your door, for a whopping$17 billion, basically merging two of the biggest food platforms in the country. So what does that actually mean for your next takeout order? Joining me now is NBC News business and economy reporter, Ellie Canal. Hi. Hey. Okay. So DoorDash, Instacart, they offer kind of slightly different services, but they have been competitors as well, right? What do we know about this deal?

18:23$17 billion. So it's pretty significant. DoorDash is going to pay$65 per Instacart share. That's actually a premium to where Instacart shares are paying right now. And basically what this is going to allow DoorDash to do is become a bigger player in the online grocery market and better compete with the likes of Walmart, which owns, which has its own business, and then also Amazon, which owns Whole Foods. So for DoorDash, they've been expanding pretty aggressively. Obviously, we know DoorDash is, you know, focused on the restaurant space, but they've recently done more with clothing, beauty, other types of everyday essentials.

18:58They have a very small presence in grocery, but now with Instacart, it's going to allow them more access to those types of businesses, and then hopefully that attracts consumers as well. So what does that mean for customers? So it can mean a few things. Yeah. One is if you're a subscriber to both DashPass and Instacart Plus, that's actually going to merge under one subscription. So instead of paying$10 for each, it's now just going to be one price. So that savings— And is the price going to increase? Apparently not. As we know of it right now, it won't increase. Doriash estimates that that could save customers a cumulative$100 million a year.

19:34Of course, that's across all of its customer base. Not just for one person. Not just for one person. If you're spending that much money, then there's a problem. Hopefully you're not spending that much on DoorDash. So that's one potential area of savings. Now, when it comes to what this could mean for the price of your groceries, I think that's a big overarching question right now. Because whenever we see M &A consolidation, typically less competition means prices are going to go up somewhere, whether it be for your delivery fees, whether it be for different discount offerings, those types of things.

20:03We're going to have to wait and see what comes out of that. I also spoke with one restaurant industry expert, Jonathan Mays. He told me he's actually worried for restaurants here because as DoorDash becomes more powerful, they've been on a big acquisition spree. Instacart is just the latest in a series of moves that DoorDash has made. It could pressure restaurants more because restaurants pay commission fees to these delivery platforms of, you know, 15 to 30 percent. So if DoorDash is becoming a more powerful player, that gives restaurants less wiggle room to negotiate. And if they're forced to raise their prices, that could eventually hit customers.

20:39So there's still more that we need to see on that front. So you mentioned how DoorDash has kind of been on a little bit of an acquisition spree, right? Because they bought the UK-based Deliveroo. Uber now owns Postmates and Delivery Hero too. What does this kind of say about the industry, this consolidation that we're seeing of all of these delivery services? Yeah. I mean, I think we're seeing it across the restaurant space in general. You've been hearing a lot more of these major companies go private, get bought up by private equity, and now there's this just major consolidation in the food delivery space.

21:12And I just think it's a sign of the times, right? It's expensive to run many of these businesses. So the smaller players are really not able to survive and keep up. They're not able to show the profits. I think if you're a public-facing company. Investors are demanding a lot more. So that's why some of these acquisitions make sense from a financial perspective. Of course, we like to think of things from a consumer perspective. And like I said earlier, whenever you have a lot of M &A, whenever you have a lot of consolidation, it tends to raise prices in various areas. I think the big question is, will DoorDash and maybe these restaurants and these grocers, will they absorb a lot of these costs?

21:50Or are they going to pass on? Well, I was going to say, is it better though for the consumer at the end of the day because like, for instance, here in New York City, if you get food delivery, it is so much more expensive through these delivery services than if you were either pick it up or directly from the restaurant if they still offer those types of services, right? A lot of restaurants don't even offer that anymore. But like I have found, I'll do a comparison. Yeah, which is smart. And I'll like put the food in my cart and then I'll like order it to be picked up. And the difference is, you know, potentially 65 to 90 percent, right?

22:24Yeah. Added on for delivery. So is there a potential with these mergers, with these acquisitions, that that could actually come down because there's less competition out there? I think it depends on which companies we're talking about with the competition, right? I mean, I mentioned Amazon and Walmart. They're obviously two big behemoths in this space. I think if as DoorDash expands its own delivery capability, specifically when we talk about online grocery, that could force Amazon and Walmart to maybe rethink their delivery and service fees too. Because if you're a family in the suburbs and you rely on Walmart and Amazon for your food delivery services and DoorDash comes along with the scene and they have a lot of more attractive offerings, yeah, you could make that switch.

23:12But I think you're only going to make that switch if the price is lower. Makes sense. So in certain ways, yes, I do think you could potentially see these savings on the service fee side. But someone's going to have to pay that cost either way. Yeah, someone's going to pick it up. Exactly. Is that going to be the grocer? Is that going to be these companies themselves? Or is that going to be the customer? And I think that's what we're waiting to see. And remember, this still faces regulatory approval. They say that they won't close this deal until the end of 2027 or early 2028. So we still have a long, long way to go here.

23:45And I think there's going to be bigger question marks along the way. Allie Cannell, thank you. Of course. All right. That is going to do it for us. Here is The Scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Basugin. We'll be back tomorrow with whatever the day may bring. And if you like what you heard, subscribe. We're going to get your podcasts. And you can also subscribe to our daily newsletter, The Inside Scoop. It's a deeper dive on the main stories of the day that comes out every weeknight straight to your inbox. You can sign up for The Inside Scoop as part of our paid subscription at NBCNews.com. We'll see you tomorrow.

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