Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski voted against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Now, the moderate senator might rebel against her caucus once more when it comes to a rules fight over the impending impeachment trial.
In an interview with KTUU-TV Anchorage, Murkowski mentioned how she was “disturbed” that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is working in “total coordination with the White House counsel’s office” to strategize against the Democrats’ impeachment.
But she also had plenty of criticism for Democrats as well.
Per Hot Air:
Murkowski was critical of the impeachment process conducted in the House of Representatives that she describes as rushed. “Speaker Pelosi was very clear, very direct that her goal was to get this done before Christmas.”
She says the Senate is now being asked to cure deficiencies in the evidence that will be presented at the trial, particularly when it comes to whether key witnesses should be brought forward to testify including White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton.
“How we will deal with witnesses remains to be seen,” Murkowski said before describing that the House should have gone to the courts if witnesses refused to appear before Congress.
On balance, Murkowski appears to be deploying the Elissa Slotnick/Doug Jones PR strategy, only from the other side. She wants to appear to be independent of her party’s leadership — no real stretch for Murkowski anyway — and retain her credibility as an “impartial” juror for when the votes take place. She can do that pretty easily by dinging McConnell for his comments about coordination (although Tom Daschle eventually admitted his staff did the same thing with Bill Clinton’s White House in 1999’s impeachment trial).
AAN Staff
The staff at American Action News are consummate professionals, who when not producing original, hard-hitting content, are scouring the internet to bring you the unfiltered news that matters to you! Our mission is to maximize your experience on our website. If we can ever be of assistance, please do not hesitate to let us know!
