Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said a fear of retaliation from Donald Trump’s administration is keeping Republicans in line on Capitol Hill.
Murkowski made the comment at a conference on Monday while responding to a question about how to respond to people who are afraid in the current political climate, Murkowski responded: “We are all afraid.”
“It’s quite a statement,” she continued after a long pause, in remarks first reported by the Anchorage Daily News.
“We’re in a time and 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. 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.”
Murkowski has repeatedly criticized Trump’s policies and “unlawful” actions taken by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) including mass firings and shutting down government agencies created by Congress.
Murkowski told Anchorage Daily News that people are approaching her in tears to describe how they had been fired from their jobs with no notice or that they were afraid to speak up about the “status of where we are” out of fear of retaliation.
“It is as hard as anything I’ve engaged in in the 20-plus years I have been in the Senate,” Murkowski said.
