Facing a hot Trump controversy, Sullivan deploys a sidestep

WASHINGTON — The subject of Thursday’s hearing was one of the biggest political controversies of President Trump’s second term: His use of the National Guard within the United States. Democrats on the Senate Armed Service Committee railed against the deployment of the National Guard to American cities. Some Republicans on the committee vigorously defended those urban deployments. Sen. Dan Sullivan did neither. When it was his turn to speak, he vigorously defended Guard deployments that no one is arguing about. He spoke about the National Guard’s role repelling Russian and Chinese forces over the Pacific and the Bering Sea. “These…