Sen. Lisa Murkowski says fellow Republicans ‘afraid’ of Trump, Musk

Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski mentioned her colleagues are afraid to talk up in opposition to among the actions from President Donald Trump and key adviser Elon Musk as a result of they assume they are going to be “taken down” and “primaried.”

“You have obtained everybody zip-lipped. Not saying a phrase, as a result of they’re afraid they will be taken down, they will be primaried, they will be given names within the media,” Murkowski, one of many few Republicans prepared to publicly criticize among the president’s actions up to now in his second time period, mentioned to reporters Tuesday in Alaska.

“You realize what, we can’t be cowed into not talking up.”

Each Trump and Musk have threatened to major dissenters within the occasion. Not too long ago, Trump threatened to steer the cost in opposition to Republican Rep. Thomas Massie within the primaries, after the congressman mentioned he would vote no on a Trump-backed persevering with decision to fund the federal government.

“It might be that Elon Musk decides that he will take the following billion {dollars} he makes off Starlink and put it immediately in opposition to Lisa Murkowksi. And you already know what. That will occur. However I am not giving up one minute, one alternative to attempt to get up for Alaska,” she mentioned.

Earlier on Tuesday, Murkowski addressed the Alaska Legislature, saying she was “disturbed” by how the Trump administration is treating federal workers as a part of the Musk-led efforts to downsize the federal workforce.

“I believe each single individual on this chamber would agree that the federal authorities is just too large,” she mentioned. “I do help the mission behind DOGE. I get it. We have to discover efficiencies in authorities.”

She mentioned that discount within the workforce make “absolute sense,” however requested that or not it’s performed “the fitting method.” Murkowski mentioned the administration’s method “lacks the elemental decency you want with actual individuals.”

“Public servants will not be our enemies. They’re our buddies. they’re our neighbors, they’re integral to our economic system and our means to perform as a state and a rustic, and their work is likely to be underappreciated.”

She additionally mentioned the Trump administration was “testing the court docket” in ignoring a federal decide’s order to halt two deportation flights of alleged gang members to El Salvador over the weekend.

“I do not assume any one among us would disagree that once you’ve obtained members of a extremely terrible gang who’ve performed some terrible issues and who aren’t on this nation legally, we don’t need them right here,” she mentioned. “However even once we wish to get them out of our nation there’s a course of, it is referred to as due course of. We comply with our personal guidelines right here.”

“When the court docket’s orders are defied, that weakens our courts. When the individuals now not imagine that the system of justice is there for them, what do we now have on this nation?”

Murkowski additionally touched on overseas coverage in her remarks, noting her house state’s proximity to Russia and Canada.

In Trump’s second time period, he has imposed important tariffs on Canadian metal and aluminum and repeatedly expressed his want to show Canada into the 51st state. Trump’s strikes have led Canadian boycotts of United States’ merchandise in addition to protests.

“How we got here to a spot the place we’re combating now with Canada and we’re making good with Russia — it is past me,” Murkowski mentioned.

After the speech, Murkowski addressed criticism that she might not being doing sufficient to push again in opposition to the Trump administration and argued that she has to “discover locations to work” with the president, whom Alaskans voted for in November. The reliably-red state voted for Trump within the presidential election — 54.5% to the 41% who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris.

She additionally mentioned she will not again down on her convictions — and mentioned she’s going to settle for the implications.

“I’m not going to compromise my very own integrity by hiding from my phrases after I really feel they have to be spoken,” she mentioned. “I will take the criticism that comes.”

“I get criticized for what I say, after which everybody else is like, ‘Effectively how come no person else is saying something?’ Effectively determine it out, as a result of they’re what number of issues they’re throwing at me they usually’re pondering ‘Perhaps I am going to simply duck and canopy.'”

Murkowski, who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial in 2021, additionally opposed the affirmation of Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth. However she voted to substantiate Trump’s different nominees, together with Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Murkowski is up for reelection in 2028.