It is rare for Republicans to voice any criticism of Donald Trump or Elon Musk. One GOP senator who occasionally does so knows why: fear.
|
Listen To This Story
 |
Most Republican lawmakers are enthusiastic supporters of Donald Trump and whatever it is that he and Elon Musk are turning the United States into.
As we have documented repeatedly, many of them go the extra mile to appease Dear Leader(s) with banana republic-worthy demonstrations of adulation. This is especially true in the case of all of the “lawmakers” who entered Congress since Trump first took office.
However, there are still plenty of Republicans in Washington who are not MAGA through-and-through and were elected when the GOP was still a (largely) sane party.
So why don’t those people speak out against unconstitutional power grabs or bone-headed policy choices that will harm Americans?
Because they are afraid for their political lives (and sometimes their actual lives or the well-being of their loved ones).
This week, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), one of the most independent-minded congressional Republicans (which is admittedly not a terribly high bar these days), described a culture of fear that permeates the ranks of GOP senators and prevents them from speaking out.
The lawmaker acknowledged that she is “more vocal” than some of her colleagues with regard to the concerns she has over what the Trump administration is doing, but Murkowski added that this should not be construed to mean that everybody is on board with what is happening.
“But that is not to suggest that every Republican is 100 percent in agreement of the means and methods that we are seeing play out,” the senator told reporters during a press conference in the state capital Juneau. “They are just choosing in different ways.”
While Murkowski stated that these different ways may include direct calls with the president in which senators voice their objections, or perhaps some back-channel conversations with administration officials, there is little evidence of that happening.
Most of them are just going along with whatever Trump and Musk want even if they have reservations.
And there is a simple reason why.
“I get criticized for what I say, and everybody else is like, ‘How come nobody else is saying anything?’” Murkowski said. “Well, figure it out, because they’re looking at how many things are being thrown at me, and it’s like, ‘Maybe I should just duck and cover.’”
And it is this attitude why “you’ve got everybody just zip-lipped, not saying a word because they’re afraid they’re going to be taken down — they’re going to be primaried, they’re going to be given names in the media,” she added.
The senator, who is not up for reelection until 2028 and has already withstood a primary challenge from a Trump-endorsed candidate in 2022, acknowledged that her (relative) outspokenness could again earn her the wrath of Trump or Musk.
The latter, she said, could decide to put up “the next billion dollars he makes off of Starlink” to get her booted from the Senate.
However, in what is clearly not a commonly held position among Senate Republicans, Murkowski added that she is “not going to compromise my own integrity by hiding from my words when I feel they need to be spoken.”
Finally, she had a message for her colleagues.
“We cannot be cowed into not speaking up,” Murkowski said.
Those are rare words for a Republican, and chances are that they will fall on deaf ears even among those of her colleagues who are deeply concerned with what Trump and Musk are doing.
