Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska on Thursday praised former Defense Secretary James Mattis’ blistering critique of President Donald Trump as “true and honest and necessary and overdue.”
Murkowski said, “When I saw Gen. Mattis’ comments yesterday I felt like perhaps we are getting to a point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally and have the courage of our own convictions to speak up. And so I’m working as one individual to form the right words, knowing that these words really matter so I appreciate General Mattis’ comments.”
In a statement in the Atlantic on Wednesday, the retired Marine Corps general said Trump’s abused his executive authority and used his presidency to further divide the country. “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,” Mattis wrote.
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Asked if she’d support the reelection of the president, whom she voted to acquit at his impeachment trial despite behavior she said was “shameful,” Murkowski said, “I am struggling with it. I have struggled with it for a long time.”
Murkowski said she’d continue to work with Trump and his administration in the meantime.
“I think right now as we are all struggling to find ways to express the words that need to be expressed appropriately, questions about who I’m going to vote for not going to vote for, I think, are distracting at the moment. I know people might think that’s a dodge but I think there are important conversations that we need to have as an American people among ourselves about where we are right now,” she said.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, called Mattis’ statement “stunning and powerful.”
Without going into detail about the contents of his statement, Romney called him “an American patriot” and “an individual whose judgment I respect.” Romney was the only Republican senator who voted to convict Trump on one of the two articles of impeachment.
Other Republican senators have shrugged off Mattis’ comments, despite their past support for Trump’s former defense secretary.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina and a top Trump ally, told Fox News of Mattis, “I admire his service to the nation. But the one thing I would tell General Mattis is that you don’t quite understand that from the time President Trump wakes up until he goes to bed there’s an effort to destroy his presidency.”
Leigh Ann Caldwell contributed.