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Asked about a rift with the vice president, she brought up a second Dan Sullivan.

Trump’s short-lived White House press secretary has taken her on-air brawling international.

Katie Zacharia appeared on the BBC’s Newsnight program on Tuesday to discuss the Republican Party’s midterm losses. When host Victoria Derbyshire, 58, pressed her on JD Vance’s claim that the Iran war sank the party, the 41-year-old pointed instead to Alaska, where two candidates named Dan Sullivan appeared on the Senate ballot, which Republicans claim was a Democratic ploy to confuse voters.

Derbyshire wasn’t buying it. “Why didn’t JD Vance mention the Sullivans and Alaska?” she asked.

“You don’t want to answer the question because you know it’s not fair. You know that that was a setup. It is so clearly a setup, and that is why it is being investigated right now.”

“This is not some random obscurity. This is two Dan Sullivans that were on the ballot in Alaska,” she said.

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“Who put Dan S. Sullivan on that ballot? Who did that?”

Dan S. Sullivan is the Republican incumbent.

Zacharia says the race was muddied by challenger Dan J. Sullivan, a retired Petersburg teacher with no party listed on the ballot.

When the host tried to cut in, Zacharia pointed to the press. “The New York Times had an answer,” she said. “Did you read that? Did you read what the New York Times came out with? Yes or no?”

Zacharia is referring to a New York Times investigation into Alaska’s Dan-on-Dan ballot drama. The report argued that Petersburg’s Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.’s candidacy resulted from a coordinated Democratic scheme to get him on the ballot

The incumbent was locked in a tight race with Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman. According to the Times, Peltola’s team worked with operatives trying to recruit the Petersburg Sullivan, and senior DSCC aides helped push him into the race. The confusion over the shared name, the Times wrote, “could cost the senator crucial votes.”

Both the campaign and the Democratic committee have denied any involvement. Dan J. Sullivan said he decided to run of his own accord.

Derbyshire returned to her initial question, asking Zacharia how Trump would be coping with “this open criticism of the war by his vice president.”

“The president has been very clear,” Zacharia responded. “… Any kind of insinuation that there’s this massive division happening is not actually understanding the relationship between the president and the vice president.”

The “open criticism” Derbyshire was referring to came on Nov. 4, the morning after Democrats swept both chambers of Congress, when Vance broke ranks on X.

“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” he wrote on X. “If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so.”

Vance went on to say that, according to a pollster he trusts, Trump voters who defected wanted four things: for the party to end the war, tackle the cost of living, “put America First,” and “change our relationship to Israel.”

The New Republic cast the reversal as self-preservation: after setting aside his early doubts about the war and backing Trump’s actions for months, Vance turned on it as soon as the midterm results came in.

Derbyshire then asked Zacharia whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should resign “so that his boss doesn’t have to keep defending him.”

“Pete Hegseth should absolutely not resign,” Zacharia replied loyally.

“He’s been a wonderful Secretary of War, and he absolutely did what any other Secretary of War or Secretary of Defense would do in these circumstances. And history will prove that not only President Trump, but also Secretary Hegseth will be thanked for ensuring the UK and the rest of the world won’t have to deal with a nuclearized Iran.”

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The interview was taped before Tuesday night’s House vote on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the Iran war. Republicans killed the effort 211-204, with only Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who forced the vote, breaking ranks.

Zacharia continued her defense of Hegseth in an X post after the interview: “No — @SecWar should absolutely not resign. The world (including the UK) should thank POTUS and Sec. Hegseth for preventing a nuclearized Iran.”

Vance’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.

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