OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A moderate Republican senator who voted to convict then-President Donald Trump following his Jan. 6 impeachment has vowed not to support him this year and is threatening to leave the party altogether.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who votes with Democrats far more often than the majority of GOP lawmakers, made the remarks on Sunday during an interview with far-left CNN. She said she “absolutely” won’t be supporting him in November, adding: “I wish that as Republicans, we had … a nominee that I could get behind. I certainly can’t get behind Donald Trump.”
When asked if she would become an Independent, Murkowski said, “Oh, I think I’m very independent-minded.” She added, “I just regret that our party is seemingly becoming a party of Donald Trump.”
Pressed further on the question, Murkowski said: “I am navigating my way through some very interesting political times. Let’s just leave it at that.”
While Murkowski blamed the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol Building on Trump, subsequent investigations into the inner workings of the committee hand-selected by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi have revealed that many of the narratives put out by the panel about Trump are false.
Unsurprisingly, Lisa Murkowski says she will not vote for Trump
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 24, 2024
To that end, Trump leveled fresh criticism at former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, another GOP lawmaker who turned on him after the riot, and the rest of the committee, which she co-chaired with Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), over omissions and misrepresentations by the panel that led to false narratives about him and false allegations against him.
“She should go to jail along with the rest of the Unselect Committee!” he wrote in response to a report from Just the News.
Trump’s comment came in response to a Just the News report indicating that Cheney attended the deposition of a Secret Service agent who provided a firsthand account of Trump’s presence in the limousine leaving the Stop the Steal rally on January 6. Instead of heading to the Capitol as promised to his supporters, the limousine took Trump to the White House.
Former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson, who was brought before the House Jan. 6 select committee at the behest of Cheney to speak out against Trump, alleged that she overheard Secret Service agents discussing an altercation involving Trump attempting to seize control of the presidential limousine’s steering wheel from the back seat.
“The driver testified that he specifically refuted the version of events as recounted by Hutchinson,” the report released by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., chair of the House Administration subcommittee on Jan. 6, noted. “The driver of the SUV testified that he ‘did not see him reach [redacted]. [President Trump] never grabbed the steering wheel.
“I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all,’” the agent testified, refuting Hutchinson’s account.
“Cassidy’s testimony was already on shaky ground, as the report was second-hand knowledge. Called hearsay, it’s usually not permitted in court proceedings as evidence,” Newsmax reported.
Trump has also been vindicated in his claim that he called for 10,000 National Guard troops to be deployed in the nation’s capital ahead of his Jan. 6 speech and rally after Pelosi and other Democrats refuted him.
Trump also pointed fingers at the leaders of the then-Democrat-controlled House for perpetuating false narratives, citing reports from Loudermilk’s committee that indicated certain evidence and transcripts were either deleted, transferred to other agencies, or password-protected to prevent the American people from accessing the truth.
“Well, they actually did destroy evidence. They deleted evidence,” he said.
“These are really sick people,” Trump added. “You know, I talk about the enemy from within and the enemy from without; the enemy on the outside and the enemy on the inside. And I’ll tell you what, in many ways, the enemy on the inside is far more dangerous than China and Russia.
“And all of it, these are really bad people. And actually, they are insurrectionists. When you see things like you’ve found out today and over the last couple of weeks, they really are insurrectionists,” he added.
