Bulwark Takes - Murkowski Says She’s Scared. Tim Says QUIT the GOP and Join the Fight!

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) says she’s afraid to speak her mind because of threats from MAGA fanatics and Trump goons. Tim Miller asks what that says about the party she still supports and if it's time for her to quit.

Bettering your business takes working with the best. With the James Hardy Alliance, you gain access to leads, training, networking, and support from the number one brand of siding in North America. Achieve new levels of success by joining the James Hardy Alliance today. Hey everybody, it's Tim Miller from The Bulwark. Republican Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski had some pretty astonishing remarks speaking to nonprofit leaders at a panel in Alaska. I want to play for you a long clip of the remarks because I have a lot of thoughts about it, some very positive, some negative towards Murkowski, some alarming. But I think it's important that everybody watch this clip uh from the united

states senator because it demonstrates just how insane of a time that we are in that this could even be said so let us watch what are you gonna have to say to people who are afraid or who represent people who are afraid. We are all afraid. Okay? That's why I'm stating it. But, we are, um, we're in a time and a place where I don't know, I certainly have not been here before.

And I'll tell you, I'm oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice because retaliation is real. And 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 that I learned as a young girl and in direct communication with those that I've made relationships with and am able to affect some change that way. But I've got to figure out how I can do my best to help the many who are so anxious and are so afraid. There's been no other time in my lifetime where a U.S. senator would have said, I'm afraid to speak out. Maybe during the periods of assassinations around the Kennedys and MLK,

maybe in that era, there might have been politicians who had real fear of political violence. But that's been a couple generations now and um that brings us to a pretty dark place where a public elected official could say something like that so i that's that's my initial reaction just how jaw-dropping it is that that that the fear has reached that level the next thought i'm going to be positive first about lisa murkowski uh and then i'm going to offer my critique for her and the positive is the point that she's trying to make is that she while she has this fear she's finding her voice and at times she'll be confrontational. At times she'll use her mother's charm. Lisa Murkowski has at times spoken out.

She did not support Trump in the last election. She also didn't support Kamala. But, you know, I think that better something than nothing, better her than John Kennedy or Bill Cassidy, my senators from Louisiana, who aren't really speaking out. She's voted against Trump nominees, right? So she's done some things and demonstrated, I'd say, a modest amount of courage. Not the amount I would have liked to see, but some. And that is worth acknowledging um you know because if lisa

minkowski was not the republican senator from alaska it would be you know i don't know maga von eskimo or something like somebody who is extremely insane almost certainly so with that as the baseline uh here's my problem with what Lisa Murkowski said. If the political environment is so fraught that you as a U.S. Senator are scared to speak out and that you know that your constituents are scared, why are you supporting the people that are creating that environment, the person that's creating that environment? When it comes to the leader of your party, you're still a Republican, Donald Trump. You could be an independent. You'd be like Angus King, could be an independent, but you're a Republican. You caucus with the Republicans. You vote for John Thune for leader. So the people that are creating this environment of fear that is so

unprecedented are the people you support. So you're afraid of the people you support. So you're afraid of the people you support. That makes no sense. That makes no sense, Lisa Murkowski. If they're so scary, then join a group that is not scary. Join the side that is trying to fight against the fear. You know, you're not up again until 2028. So you have four years, you have three and a half years.

You have a long runway. You have a lot of options. Why, you know, go along to get along and choose your spots when you know what this government is doing is wrong. You know it's harming the people of Alaska. You know that what Doge is doing is causing real damage to federal workers in your state. You know that it's not okay to whisk people away and send them to a foreign gulag because of their tattoos

with no due process. You know that Trump cozying up to Putin is wrong. Like, you can choose your spots and speak out on that stuff, or you can be part of the effort to remove them from power. Right now, the Republicans have 53 senators. If Lisa Murkowski did what others before her, Arlen Specter, Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Jim Jeffords, did and said, okay, I'm going to be an independent. I'm going to caucus with the Democrats. Then the Republicans would only have 52 seats.

Okay? As she convinced her friend Susan Collins to join that little independent gang, then the Republicans would only have 51 seats. And then you would get to a midterm in 2026 where the Senate is more gettable for Democrats or for some, you know, unity management of the Senate between this little independent caucus and the Democrats. That's an option.

That's a real option uh you know there are ways that you as a as a member of the republican senate conference could stall or slow the agenda with the gop and we've seen the the far right guys do this tommy toberville did it to some effect during the Biden administration, limiting his ability to, you know, do military promotions. So you have a lot of options. You are in a position of immense privilege. Like this fee, the people that really should be afraid, the people that have legitimate fears of people losing their jobs, who are your constituents the immigrants um venezuelan refugees people that might be sent here to louisiana to the private prison in natchez or sent down to el salvador those people have have legitimate reasons to be afraid um people have

been detained at airports people that wrote op-eds about their views on the Israel, Israel, Palestine conflict have reason to be afraid. Like Elisa Murkowski doesn't have real reason to be afraid. Like you have staff, you have resources, you have a protective bubble if you wanted to. So, you know, I don't want to minimize the threats. We all have threats now in this day and age. And the reason we all have threats is Donald Trump. And so if you do not like that political environment, then it's incumbent upon you to oppose the person that has created it, who is the president of the United States. And so while I appreciate that Lisa Murkowski is picking her spots to speak out, that she is not curled into a ball like some of her colleagues, more is still required. More is still required in this unbelievable, unimaginable, astonishing moment that we're in, where a U.S. senator would admit to fear of retaliation for just giving their opinion. That's the latest. Subscribe to the feed. We'll keep monitoring.

Lisa Percocci is always welcome here on The Bulwark. Hasn't taken me up on the offer yet, but one of these days. And for the rest of y'all, we'll be talking to you soon.