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Sen. Lisa Murkowski speaks during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing in September 2023 in Washington, DC.
Learn more about Sen. Lisa Murkowski's plans on “Inside Politics Sunday with Manu Raju” at 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. ET.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski is appalled by Donald Trump's candidacy and the direction of the party, and won't rule out leaving the Republican Party.
The veteran Alaska Republican was one of seven Republicans to vote to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial in the aftermath of January 6, 2021. He said he has broken up with the former president and will “absolutely” not vote for Trump.
“As a Republican, I wish we had a candidate we could support,” Murkowski told CNN. “I certainly cannot support Donald Trump.”
The party's shift toward President Trump has led Murkowski to consider her future within the Republican Party. In his interview, he did not say whether he would remain a Republican.
Asked if she planned to be independent, Mukovsky replied: “Yeah, I think I'm very independent.” He added: “I'm just disappointed that it looks like our party has become the party of Donald Trump.”
Asked if that meant becoming independent, Mukavsky said: “I'm going through a very interesting political period. Let's just leave it at that.”
Murkowski hasn't always been aggressive within the party. Appointed in 2002 by her father, Gov. Frank Murkowski, the senator's politics align with then-President George W. Bush, and she is aligned with the state's senior Republican senator, Ted Stevens. They maintained a close relationship. He built Alaska using the federal money he poured into his homeland.
She later became Sen. John McCain's running mate, running against then-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who was a harsh critic of her father. After the rise of the Tea Party in 2010, Mr. Mukavsky clashed with the right-wing rebels within the party. Although she lost the 2010 primary to Republican Joe Miller, she went on to defend her seat, becoming only the second candidate in history to win a write-in campaign for the Senate in the general election.
After voting to convict Trump in 2021, Murkowski voted against Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court in 2018 and supported Ketanji Brown Jackson in 2022. Even after that, he sought re-election in the next two elections. She has been a target of Trump and his allies in 2022, backed by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and his big-spending outside group.
In the 2024 cycle, Murkowski, along with Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, offered a late endorsement of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley just days before she dropped out of the race.
Now, it's clear that Murkowski is poised to overtake Trump. Asked about President Trump's recent statement that Jews who vote for Democrats must “hate” their religion, Murkowski said it was “incredibly wrong and a terrible statement.”
And Murkowski pushed back when asked last week about another controversial comment by President Trump: that he viewed the January 6 prisoners as “hostages” and “patriots” who should be pardoned. .
“I don't think it's defensible,” Murkowski said. “What happened on January 6th…was the act of people storming a building trying to stop the certification of an election. That's indefensible.”
