Establishment anti-Trump Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said she is “anxious” about using her voice, claiming that “we are all afraid” because “retaliation is real.”
When asked what she would say to people who are afraid or who represent people who are afraid, Murkowski took on an incredibly somber tone.
“We are all afraid,” she said, pausing dramatically. “It’s quite a statement.”
“But we are. … We’re in a time and a place where I don’t know, I certainly have not — I have not been here before,” she said.
“And I’ll tell you I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice because retaliation is real,” Murkowski claimed. “That’s not right, but that’s what you’ve asked me to do. And so I’m going to use my voice to the best of my ability.”
“And sometimes it will be viewed in a way that, ‘Well, that’s pretty confrontational,” and other times it’s going to be using my mother’s charm like I learned as a young girl and in direct communication with those that I’ve made relationships with, and I’m able to effect change that way,” she said, concluding that she must figure out how she can “do my best to help the many who are so anxious, and so afraid.”
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It remains unclear what kind of “retaliation” she is speaking of, but there was no mention of the actual retaliation and lawfare that occurred against President Trump and political opponents during the Biden era in that clip of her response.
These remarks should come as no surprise, as Murkowski has long made her position against Trump clear, endorsing Nikki Haley in the GOP primary last year. She has since spent her time attempting to balance her anti-Trump behavior with also flying under the radar, and warning her colleagues to stand against Trump as necessary.
“When the executive basically blows by Congress or rolls right over Congress and we allow that, we’re ceding our responsibility,” she said during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
“I believe you can absolutely be a 100-percent supporter of President Trump and still stand up for the institution of the Senate, for the legislative branch with our authorities that are prescribed to us specifically by the Constitution,” she claimed.
Murkowski earned a callout from President Trump on Truth Social this month, as he urged her to get on the “Republican bandwagon, for a change.”
