The Dictatorship
Lisa Murkowski’s commitment to the Trump-era Republican Party appears increasingly shaky
As Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s new memoir reaches bookstore and library shelves, the Alaska Republican appears to have quite a bit to say about Donald Trump — whom she admits she never voted for.
“Trump wants to be seen as special and uniquely capable. He seems to have a deep psychological need for that kind of approval. In fact, he has opposite qualities,” the senator wrote. “In my dealings with him as president, it was evident that he could not have planned his own rise or engineered the transformation of the Supreme Court. He isn’t that smart.”
As part of her promotional efforts for in “Far from Home: An Alaskan Senator Faces the Extreme Climate of Washington, D.C.,” Murkowski has also made fresh comments about her party affiliation, some of which have raised eyebrows. Politico reported:
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of President Donald Trump’s most vocal critics in the Senate GOP, said in a podcast on Monday that there are certain situations in which she’d consider becoming an independent and caucusing with Democrats. ‘There may be that possibility,’ she told Galen Druke in an interview excerpt of his GD Politics podcast, scheduled to post in full on Tuesday.
“There is some openness to exploring something different than the status quo,” she told the host.
It’s important not to overstate matters, and those expecting an imminent announcement from Murkowski about her party label should probably temper their expectations. Indeed, the Alaskan specifically told NBC News this week that while she’s “very independent-minded,” she’s not planning to leave the Republican Party.
That said, Murkowski also told Semafor that she’s “considered” leaving the GOP, adding, “Do I feel that within my Republican conference, I always feel like I’m right here in my political home? No.”
For those who keep an eye on Capitol Hill, comments like these were provocative but not surprising. Just in recent months, Murkowski opposed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s nomination, condemned Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons and criticized the White House’s willingness to abandon Ukraine.
Just as notably, in April, the senator told a room full of Alaska nonprofit leaders, “We are all afraid. It’s quite a statement. But we are in a time and a place where I certainly have not been here before.” At the same event, she described some of the Trump administration’s recent moves as “unlawful” and “against the law.” She similarly expressed concern about the degree to which USAID had “just been obliterated,” described proposed GOP cuts to Medicaid as “devastating” and efforts to politicize the federal judiciary have brought the country to “a very dangerous place.”
More than any Republican in Congress, the Alaskan can be counted on for candor about the state of her party in the Trump era. In fact, late last year, about a month after the president won a second term, the senator conceded that she felt “more comfortable” with no party label than with “an identity as a Republican.”
The comments came a few years after Murkowski also saidin the wake of the Jan. 6 attack, “If the Republican Party has become nothing more than the party of Trump, I sincerely question whether this is the party for me.”
I don’t pretend to know what’s going to happen, but if Murkowski does leave the GOP, no one in the party can say they weren’t warned.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an BLN political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”