GOP senator says her colleagues are 'giving up' by endorsing Trump before anyone heads to the polls: 'Makes you wonder why we do the primaries'
"Why shouldn't we demand the best this country can offer?" asked Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska.
Jemal Countess/Getty Images for JDRF
- More and more GOP lawmakers are backing Trump ahead of the Iowa Caucuses next week.
- That's dismaying to at least one GOP holdout: Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
- "Republicans are giving up," she said. "Why shouldn't we demand the best this country can offer?"
In recent weeks, more and more Republican members of Congress are getting behind former President Donald Trump.
Every GOP party leader in the House has endorsed Trump, and this week, Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming — the 3rd highest-ranking Republican in the chamber — did the same.
Some GOP lawmakers have argued that the endorsements are driven by their colleagues' "fear" of their own voters.
But for Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, it's simply a sign that they're throwing in the towel.
"Republicans are giving up," Murkowski told POLITICO. "Why shouldn't we demand the best this country can offer?"
"There is room for an alternative to Trump versus Biden if we make that space, but we so pigeonhole ourselves into thinking that those are our two choices. We've already done that before a single primary has happened," Murkowski continued. "Makes you wonder why we do the primaries."
Murkowski, however, may be somewhat immune to the pressures facing her Republican colleagues: She handily won reelection last year against a Trump-backed primary challenger, even after she voted to convict Trump for incitement of an insurrection following January 6.
Murkowski has long been known as an unorthodox, anti-Trump voice in her party, including opposing the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and voting against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of Trump's three appointees.
Voters are set to head to the polls for the first time this cycle on Monday, when Iowa voters will choose between Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former Ambassador Nikki Haley in the state's first-in-the-nation caucuses.
Trump holds a commanding lead in the state, and nationwide polling shows that he's the overwhelming favorite to be the party's nominee again in 2024, despite a string of criminal cases against him.