Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) last week issued a challenge to fellow Republicans who might be concerned about what President Donald Trump and his administration are doing — but haven’t been willing to say so.
Basically, she said it can’t just be me.
“It requires speaking out. It requires saying, ‘That violates the law,’ ‘That violates the authorities of the executive,’” Murkowski said. She added: “So it requires speaking out and standing up. And that requires, again, more than just one or two Republicans.”
Republicans in general haven’t exactly heeded her clarion call. But she is getting some sudden backup from a handful of prominent moderate Republicans using rather strong language.
They’ve used words such as “embarrassing,” “cruel,” “absurd,” “extortion” and “trauma” while crying foul over what Trump and Elon Musk are doing to the federal government, as well as Trump’s attacks on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Still, Murkowski’s criticisms have been the most full-throated of any Republican.
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At a town hall last week, she criticized the mass firings of federal workers, which she called mostly “indiscriminate,” and said they had caused “confusion, anxiety, and now trauma to our civil servants.” She also suggested that the Trump administration might be violating multiple laws with its funding freezes, including the Impoundment Control Act. She said that this “cannot be allowed to stand.”
Murkowski followed that up this weekend by criticizing Musk’s Saturday email asking federal employees to share five accomplishments from the previous week. She called it an “absurd weekend email to justify their existence.”
Murkowski has generally been one of the two most moderate Republican members of the Senate, along with Sen. Susan Collins (Maine). Murkowski won reelection as a write-in candidate in 2010 after losing the Republican primary, and she was aided in her 2022 reelection campaign by the state’s ranked-choice voting system, which allowed her to consolidate support from the left to defeat a Trump-backed Republican.
She’s now been joined in some more tempered criticisms of Musk by freshman Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah), whose reputation as something of a moderate dates to his time in the House.
Appearing on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” over the weekend, Curtis said Musk’s email isn’t how federal workers should be treated. He suggested some of Musk’s and the U.S. DOGE Service’s actions were understandable, but he also took issue with how they’ve handled things.
“If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it’s like: Please put a dose of compassion in this,” Curtis said. “These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages. It’s a false narrative to say we have to cut and you have to be cruel to do it as well. We can do both.”
Curtis added, “I will double down on the fact that we don’t need to be so cold and hard, and let’s put a little compassion and dignity in this as well.”
Two of the three House Republicans who represent districts Trump lost in the 2024 election have also been increasingly outspoken about Trump’s Ukraine comments. Trump last week falsely claimed that Ukraine started the war and called Zelensky a “dictator.”
Reps. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania) have taken exception to that, posting repeatedly on X about it.
Bacon called Trump’s version of events “embarrassing,” while adding: “We are better than this.”
In another case, he promoted a post claiming, “If [Vice President JD] Vance had been around in 1776, he might have argued that the American Revolution was a lost cause, because of course the British would always be mightier.”
He also promoted an op-ed that suggested that Trump wanted Ukrainians to “walk quietly to the gallows while thanking him as they are hanged in the worldwide public square.”
When the United States voted with Russia in the U.N. General Assembly on Monday against a resolution blaming Russia for the war, Bacon was one of the few Republicans to criticize it.
“This Republican does not agree with our vote,” he said.
Fitzpatrick has offered similar thoughts.
After Trump called Zelensky a “Dictator without Elections” on social media, Fitzpatrick posted, “Vladimir Putin is the Dictator without Elections.”
On Sunday, Fitzpatrick suggested that Trump’s efforts to gain rare Earth mineral rights as a concession from Ukraine amount to extorting an ally.
“To force Ukraine to pay these costs is the epitome of victim-blaming and victim extortion,” Fitzpatrick said.
And in between, he indicated that he would help marshal opposition to any deal that “rewarded” Putin “for his illegal invasion.” Fitzpatrick said there is an “outcome-determinative number” of members of both parties ready to thwart that.
“We will use every lever and every vote at our disposal, regardless of the personal or political consequences,” Fitzpatrick said. “This matter is that time-sensitive and it is that existential. It is legacy-defining.”
Basically, she said it can’t just be me.
“It requires speaking out. It requires saying, ‘That violates the law,’ ‘That violates the authorities of the executive,’” Murkowski said. She added: “So it requires speaking out and standing up. And that requires, again, more than just one or two Republicans.”
Republicans in general haven’t exactly heeded her clarion call. But she is getting some sudden backup from a handful of prominent moderate Republicans using rather strong language.
They’ve used words such as “embarrassing,” “cruel,” “absurd,” “extortion” and “trauma” while crying foul over what Trump and Elon Musk are doing to the federal government, as well as Trump’s attacks on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Still, Murkowski’s criticisms have been the most full-throated of any Republican.
🏛️
Follow Politics
At a town hall last week, she criticized the mass firings of federal workers, which she called mostly “indiscriminate,” and said they had caused “confusion, anxiety, and now trauma to our civil servants.” She also suggested that the Trump administration might be violating multiple laws with its funding freezes, including the Impoundment Control Act. She said that this “cannot be allowed to stand.”
Murkowski followed that up this weekend by criticizing Musk’s Saturday email asking federal employees to share five accomplishments from the previous week. She called it an “absurd weekend email to justify their existence.”
Murkowski has generally been one of the two most moderate Republican members of the Senate, along with Sen. Susan Collins (Maine). Murkowski won reelection as a write-in candidate in 2010 after losing the Republican primary, and she was aided in her 2022 reelection campaign by the state’s ranked-choice voting system, which allowed her to consolidate support from the left to defeat a Trump-backed Republican.
She’s now been joined in some more tempered criticisms of Musk by freshman Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah), whose reputation as something of a moderate dates to his time in the House.
Appearing on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” over the weekend, Curtis said Musk’s email isn’t how federal workers should be treated. He suggested some of Musk’s and the U.S. DOGE Service’s actions were understandable, but he also took issue with how they’ve handled things.
“If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it’s like: Please put a dose of compassion in this,” Curtis said. “These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages. It’s a false narrative to say we have to cut and you have to be cruel to do it as well. We can do both.”
Curtis added, “I will double down on the fact that we don’t need to be so cold and hard, and let’s put a little compassion and dignity in this as well.”
Two of the three House Republicans who represent districts Trump lost in the 2024 election have also been increasingly outspoken about Trump’s Ukraine comments. Trump last week falsely claimed that Ukraine started the war and called Zelensky a “dictator.”
Reps. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania) have taken exception to that, posting repeatedly on X about it.
Bacon called Trump’s version of events “embarrassing,” while adding: “We are better than this.”
In another case, he promoted a post claiming, “If [Vice President JD] Vance had been around in 1776, he might have argued that the American Revolution was a lost cause, because of course the British would always be mightier.”
He also promoted an op-ed that suggested that Trump wanted Ukrainians to “walk quietly to the gallows while thanking him as they are hanged in the worldwide public square.”
When the United States voted with Russia in the U.N. General Assembly on Monday against a resolution blaming Russia for the war, Bacon was one of the few Republicans to criticize it.
“This Republican does not agree with our vote,” he said.
Fitzpatrick has offered similar thoughts.
After Trump called Zelensky a “Dictator without Elections” on social media, Fitzpatrick posted, “Vladimir Putin is the Dictator without Elections.”
On Sunday, Fitzpatrick suggested that Trump’s efforts to gain rare Earth mineral rights as a concession from Ukraine amount to extorting an ally.
“To force Ukraine to pay these costs is the epitome of victim-blaming and victim extortion,” Fitzpatrick said.
And in between, he indicated that he would help marshal opposition to any deal that “rewarded” Putin “for his illegal invasion.” Fitzpatrick said there is an “outcome-determinative number” of members of both parties ready to thwart that.
“We will use every lever and every vote at our disposal, regardless of the personal or political consequences,” Fitzpatrick said. “This matter is that time-sensitive and it is that existential. It is legacy-defining.”
