Lisa Murkowski is first GOP Senator who wants Donald Trump to resign, says her future as Republican is 'uncertain'
Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski has had occasions when she differed with President Donald Trump. But the veteran lawmaker was so miffed with the events that unfolded at the Capitol Hill on Wednesday, January 6, when Trump’s supporters stormed the building and vandalized it that she said Trump should step down immediately. The 63-year-old even went to the extent of saying that if the Republican Party could not distance itself from the president even now, she isn’t sure about her future as a member of the GOP.
Speaking at an interview with Anchorage Daily News from her Capitol office on Friday, January 8, Murkowski said she wanted Trump to resign. "I want him out. He has caused enough damage," she said near the Senate chambers that faced the wrath of the president’s supporters who were protesting the results of the 2020 presidential election that went to Joe Biden. The invasion happened when the Congress met to certify the Electoral College votes affirming Biden as the winner and Trump was accused of inciting violence. He was later banned by Twitter and Facebook while the Democrats were vocally seeking his ouster, either through invoking the 25th Amendment or impeachment.
While a number of members of Trump’s cabinet and administration have resigned in protest to the riot, Murkowski became the first Republican in the Senate to call for the president’s resignation, as per CNN and other congressional reports.
“I think he should leave. He said he’s not going to show up. He’s not going to appear at the inauguration. He hasn’t been focused on what is going on with Covid. He’s either been golfing or he’s been inside the Oval Office fuming and throwing every single person who has been loyal and faithful to him under the bus, starting with the vice president. He doesn’t want to stay there. He only wants to stay there for the title. He only wants to stay there for his ego. He needs to get out. He needs to do the good thing, but I don’t think he’s capable of doing a good thing," Murkowski said, without mincing words.
The senator, who is serving in the chamber since 2002 and is up for re-election in 2022, said while “there may have been many, many, many, many good Americans who came to Washington, DC, because they felt strongly in support of this president,” it was the incumbent president who incited them to storm the Capitol through his speech given near the Washington Monument.
'Can't be in GOP if it becomes party of Trump'
On the question of exiting the GOP in protest, Murkowski said the future depends on the party. She said if the party decides to become the party of Trump, then she will find herself a misfit. On the speculation that she could become an independent, Murkowski said: "Well, you know, there’s a lot of people who actually thought that I did that in 2010, think that I became an independent. I didn’t have any reason to leave my party in 2010. I was a Republican who ran a write-in campaign and I was successful. But I will tell you, if the Republican Party has become nothing more than the party of Trump, I sincerely question whether this is the party for me."
Murkowksi also told Alaska Public Media on January 8 that she was not going to join the new Democratic majority in the Senate but is talking to the moderate wings in both parties and in both chambers of the Congress. She also said that those Republicans who did not renounce Trump were also responsible for the current situation and she included herself among them as well. “I allowed myself to refrain from speaking my truth. And I can’t just be quiet right now,” she said.
Murkowski disappointed with GOP's loss in Senate
Murkowski, who once backed former defense secretary James Mattis over his criticism of Trump and said it was “necessary and overdue”, was disappointed that the GOP lost its majority in the Senate by losing the two key runoff elections in Georgia earlier this week which will help the incoming Biden administration to push its agenda with major resistance. Both the GOP and Dems have 50 seats in the Senate now but the blue party will have the final say since Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will have the tie-breaking vote.
"I think that that was another area where I think you can look directly to President Trump.... That was very, very, very unfortunate,” she said.
Murkowski also differed with Trump to rush ahead with the nomination of a new Supreme Court judge in an election year after Ruth Bader Ginsburg died last September. She had objected to the same idea when the former Obama administration nominated Merrick Garland after Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016 and wanted to stick to the same principle, but eventually endorsed Amy Coney Barrett. In 2018, Murkowski opposed the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, another SCOTUS judge that Trump picked.