Former President Donald Trump took aim at Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) while stumping for her Republican competitor, former governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, at a rally in her home state Saturday evening.
The former president made Murkowski, a well-known centrist and Trump critic, the main focus of his “Save America” rally at the American Airlines Center in Anchorage, Alaska, referencing her within minutes of taking the stage and never going more than half an hour without bringing her up.
“If you want to make our country safe for violent criminals, vote for the radical crazy Democrats,” Trump said early in his speech. “If you want to make it safe, for your family, your children, and for law-abiding Americans, you must vote Republican, and do it quickly, and get Murkowski out of here, because she’s not a Republican. She is not a Republican.”
NEW ALASKA VOTING RULES EXPLAIN MURKOWSKI ‘YES’ VOTE FOR BIDEN SUPREME COURT PICK
Getting specific, Trump made numerous references to Murkowski’s vote to confirm Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who suspended action on drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge within days of being confirmed by the Senate.
Murkowski and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) have long been supporters of ANWR drilling in Alaska, but both Republicans crossed party lines to support Haaland’s nomination. Trump did not reference Sullivan’s support for Haaland, though, only calling him out for his continued backing of Murkowski.
“Murkowski has been in the Senate for 21 years. Her father held a seat for 21 years before. She’s a total creature of the Washington swamp, but much worse than that,” the former president said, going on to call her “a tool of a corrupt establishment the likes of which we’ve never seen. The fake news media loves her. As one of the most destructive to face RINOs, she betrayed the Alaska voters, she wiped out ANWR.”
“This is your precious chance to dump the horrific RINO Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who is worse — she’s worse than a Democrat,” he went on to tell the crowd, prompting cheers. “And how Sullivan doesn’t come out and denounce her is amazing to me.”
“Lisa Murkowski approves the person [Deb Haaland] and that in their first day of office, wipes out ANWR. Now, Lisa Murkowski said I’m not going to vote for you unless I have assurances of ANWR for Alaska,” Trump said of her support for confirming Biden’s interior secretary, adding that if ANWR had been protected, “They would have been paying you taxes, okay?”
“And it was wiped out in one day by Lisa Murkowski’s approval. She had the final vote. She could have made a deal, could have done something. Just remember she did it,” he told the crowd.
Trump then turned to the other times Murkowski voted against his agenda during his presidency.
“Murkowski repeatedly voted in favor of amnesty for illegal aliens, and she voted against allowing funding for the border wall. She opposed Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. He just gave you the most important vote you’ve ever had, but she was against them,” the former president said. “She voted to approve Joe Biden’s radical Left Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the most far-left justice in history … Lisa Murkowski approved her.
“Murkowski voted to support taxpayer-funded, late-term abortions, nine months, the baby can be born like in Virginia, remember the governor of Virginia? The baby’s born, and then we’ll sit down with a mother and find out what we want to do with it. Remember that guy? Well, that’s basically what they’re approving. That’s basically what they’re doing, and Murkowski voted in favor of it,” he continued.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The Alaska senator was first elected in 2002, but she made history when she was reelected in 2010 through a write-in campaign. The achievement made her the first senator in over 50 years to win her race in such a way. She has drawn the ire of Trump in recent years, though, after voting to impeach the outgoing president in 2021 and confirming many of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees.
The former president wrapped up his speech by denouncing rampant crime in cities with Democrats in charge, high energy prices, Democrats’ approach to buying oil from overseas, issues related to transgender youth, Democratic lawmakers’ efforts to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal, and the current flailing economy.
“But we are not going to let this continue,” he told the crowd, vowing that Republicans would retake both houses of Congress later this year and the White House in 2024.
