Trump may have to shut up about Lisa Murkowski

GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) said on Wednesday that President Trump's comments on Christine Blasey Ford were "wholly inappropriate," becoming the latest swing-vote senator to distance herself from his mockery of the first woman to accuse Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.

“I am taking everything into account. I think the president’s comments yesterday mocking Dr. Ford were wholly inappropriate and in my view unacceptable," Murkowski told reporters, asked how Trump's comments would impact her vote.

  The Hill

In a brief telephone interview with The Washington Post, Trump said voters in Alaska “will never forgive” Murkowski for voting against confirming Kavanaugh, and he forecast her defeat in a Republican primary should she run for reelection in 2022.

“I think she will never recover from this,” Trump said. “I think the people from Alaska will never forgive her for what she did.”

[...]

Trump called The Post from the White House residence on Saturday afternoon, shortly before the Senate held its final vote and before he jetted to Kansas for an evening campaign rally, where he was looking to take a victory lap.

[...]

“I won Alaska by many points — I don’t know what, but a lot. Sixteen. A lot,” Trump said. [ed: It was 14, and I'd wager he knows exactly how many points he won each state by.] [...] The president went on to tell The Post, “You can also say that this is the president that gave Alaska ANWR, which is the biggest oil deal in the world. Okay? You know, it’s like the biggest in the world. That Ronald Reagan could not get through, that no president could get through.” [...] Trump continued, referencing his predecessors in office: “For almost 50 years they’ve been trying to get it. Reagan couldn’t get it. Nobody could get it. Bush couldn’t get it. Clinton tried. I wouldn’t say Obama, it’s not his deal. I can’t imagine he tried. But nobody could get it through, including Ronald Reagan. They worked endlessly and I got it done.”

[...]

Trump spoke at length in the interview about Murkowski’s opposition to Kavanaugh and predicted dire political fallout for her in Alaska.

“She doesn’t run for four years,” he said. “She’s lucky.”

[...]

"What she did was unacceptable. Really unacceptable.”

  WaPo

I suspect it was Murkowski's comments about his nastiness regarding Dr. Ford as much, or more, than the fact she voted no that stoked his ire. The "unacceptable" is the give-away.

But, unlike most things, Republicans in Congress didn't jump on his bandwagon.

[Murkowski's] Senate GOP colleagues are defending her, pushing back against Trump’s vow to make her pay a political price for opposing Kavanaugh.

[...]

“If I was going to pick people to be the least persuaded in the direction you want them to go by any kind of intimidation, I’d put Lisa and Susan Collins on the list. I don’t think it serves the purpose,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of GOP leadership. “Generally, she is for what we want to do … anything that sounds the least bit threatening would not rein Lisa Murkowski in.”

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said the president and the Republican Party should “enjoy the win” and move on because there’s always another big vote around the corner. Murkowski’s vote may be needed soon on confirming a new attorney general, for example, or other Cabinet-level nominees in the lame duck or next year.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who is close to Trump, suggested that the president may regret his spontaneous phone call to The Washington Post on Saturday in which he called Murkowski’s vote “really unacceptable.”

“I don’t think that was a good thing to do. Murkowski’s a good senator. She does what she believes,” Hatch said. “I think he has backed off now.”

[...]

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said of any retribution: “I’ll fight it fully.”

And Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said he would fight any effort to strip her of her chairmanship. Party leaders said Murkowski was unlikely to face fallout within the caucus for her vote; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sunday that Murkowski still is in “good standing” in the Senate GOP.

“It was just a very personal decision Sen. Murkowski made and she’s not going to be influenced by what anybody else has to say about it. And that was her best judgment she had to make,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas).

[...]

Murkowski’s 2010 general election win [as a write-in] after losing her primary is something of legend, solidifying her independent streak and demonstrating that she relies less on the GOP party infrastructure than perhaps any other senator.

That's some pretty awesome stuff.

Murkowski brushed off the idea that her vote could cost her with the GOP, either in elections or within the Senate itself. “I took the vote that I took, and I’m good with it. I’m moving forward. I think we all need to be. I’m not going to dwell on the what-ifs,” she said Tuesday evening. “That’s what we have to do.”

[...]

On Tuesday evening on the Senate floor, Murkowski chatted amiably with Cornyn and Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who missed Saturday’s confirmation vote for his daughter’s wedding, leading Murkowski to vote “present” to maintain a two-vote margin for Kavanaugh.

She could have voted no and left Steve Daines' absence out there to bring the vote closer. Trump can't appreciate what she did there. Another confirmation that he really didn't care about her vote so much as her calling him out for mocking Dr. Ford.

But some in the GOP worry that she’s already a lame duck no matter what she does the next four years.

“In a state that Trump carried by [14] points, I think she’s committed political suicide,” said one Republican senator. “I just feel sorry for her. It just doesn’t make sense.”

It makes a hell of a lot more sense than voting however your party tells you to rather than to represent your constituents, "Republican senator" who's too cowardly to be named.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.