Transcript: Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan”

The following is the transcript of an interview with Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, taped Aug. 14, 2025, in Anchorage, Alaska, and airing on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Aug. 17, 2025.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator. 

SEN. DAN SULLIVAN: Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Thank you for joining us in your home state. 

SEN. SULLIVAN: Welcome to Alaska. The father of the U.S. Air Force called Alaska the most strategic place in the world. That’s a quote by Billy Mitchell that I use a lot. And now you see why. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well — very strategic. And I want to talk to you about a lot of things specific to the state–

SEN. SULLIVAN: Good.

MARGARET BRENNAN: —but this is the focus of the world right now—

SEN. SULLIVAN: It is.

MARGARET BRENNAN: —because of who’s coming here. 

SEN. SULLIVAN: Yes. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: So from your perspective, you’re a supporter of Ukraine—

SEN. SULLIVAN: I have been.

MARGARET BRENNAN: —what does a successful Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, summit look like? 

SEN. SULLIVAN: Well, look, I think the President and his team need to be commended. You know, they have put a lot of effort and energy in peace, with regard to Ukraine and Russia, like they’re doing all around the world, you know, they’re they’re making a lot of headway on peace, whether it’s the Azerbaijan-Armenia issues, Iran-Israel, Pakistan-India, they’re putting a lot of energy into bringing peace to different parts of the world, but they put the most energy into this. 

So, look, I think a successful outcome would be, as you know, a com- negotiating peace is very complex, very difficult. Even this kind of high level diplomacy has risks for everybody, including the president and his team. The different elements of a peace agreement, starting with the ceasefire, then you would have territorial issues, concessions or not, then you have security guarantees. But I think this is a place-setting exercise that the administration believes that if they can get a ceasefire, then you would do the other elements that I talked about, the much more complex elements, with Zelenskyy, with our European and NATO allies. So I think the President is going to assess Putin’s seriousness on a ceasefire. And if he assesses that, that he’s serious, and Putin agrees to a ceasefire, then I think that would be success. Then you move on to the other elements for round two. So this is really preliminary, and I would call it, you know, an exercise in place-setting for the…