Murkowski book with ‘fervent' appeal for bipartisanship planned for June
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is penning a bipartisanship-focused memoir that calls for compromise amid a deeply divided Congress.
'Far From Home' details how Murkowski 'learned to adapt to the harsh climate of Washington, D.C., and issues a fervent appeal for a politics grounded in compromise and compassion' publisher Forum Books said in promotional materials released this week.
The Last Frontier State's senior senator, the publisher said, 'has repeatedly stood at the center of our nation's most challenging issues, serving as a swing vote and a voice willing to challenge the president, regardless of who holds the office.'
In remarks this week, Murkowski urged fellow senators not to give up their legislative authority.
She said it's possible to be a '100-percent supporter of President Trump and still stand up for the institution of the Senate, for the legislative branch, with our authorities that are prescribed to us specifically by the Constitution.'
The 67-year-old lawmaker's memoir, poised to be released on June 24, was 'written at a time when Americans' trust in their institutions is in crisis,' and will offer a 'candid account of how things get done in Washington.'
'My purpose in writing is to show what I learned along the way,' Murkowski said in a statement, according to The Associated Press.
'I want to revive your hope that it is possible for our democracy to function again as a forum for Americans of goodwill to collectively solve our problems and protect our liberties,' she said.
The publisher called 'Far From Home' an 'uplifting narrative for anyone seeking reassurance that our political system can still work.'
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The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Padilla handcuffing raises the stakes for Democrats confronting administration
The handcuffing of Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) raises the stakes for future clashes between Democrats and the administration as acts of protest have been met with swift law enforcement action. Democrats have vowed to continue their pressure campaign on the administration over its immigration policies, but the incident involving Padilla and President Trump's forceful response to Democratic protestors raise questions over how such confrontations will intensify. The remarkable video shows Padilla being forced to the ground and then handcuffed after interrupting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's press conference, with the lawmaker identifying himself by name and title and saying he wished to ask a question. Trump administration officials said Secret Service agents responded as trained — removing an unknown figure as he pushed his way toward the front of a press conference. Democrats see it as the manhandling of a colleague and an escalation after the administration brought charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) over her involvement in a scuffle that erupted when she and colleagues were attempting to visit a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. 'This is another incident of Trump and his administration abusing their power and stopping members and elected officials from doing their jobs. I mean, this is just going to keep escalating,' McIver said in response to a question from The Hill. 'This is why we must continue to do oversight. We must continue to do our jobs, and be vocal about what this administration is doing. And it's a threat to our democracy. It's very sad. It's a sad day in America to see everything that is happening, from the situation with me to now with the United States senator being basically tackled to the ground.' Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) raised a more chilling prospect. 'It is a further dissension into anarchy and authoritarianism, and it is time that Republicans in the House and the Senate not only stand up for our institution, but stand up for democracy and call on Donald Trump to stop this lawlessness, or someone is going to get killed,' he told The Hill. The condemnation from Democrats of Padilla's treatment was immediate, with California Democrats walking down the Capitol steps in unison for a press conference that swelled as more of their colleagues from other states arrived. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) said Padilla was 'assaulted.' Numerous lawmakers said he was 'manhandled.' And Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) raised concerns that Democrats could face violent consequences even as he stressed the need to push back on what he dubbed an effort by Trump 'to show that he is not controlled by our Constitution.' 'We're heading down a dark, dark path, something that in my imagination I never thought we would reach. But this is where we are, and if, if they can do that to a member of Congress from New Jersey, a senior senator who was shouting at the top of his lungs, 'I am Sen. Alex Padilla,'' Gomez said. 'If it can happen to Alex, it can happen to any of those senators on the other side, or any member of Congress, or anybody. So I want to just stress that we're not going to give up. We're not going to be intimidated. We're not going to be cowards. We're going to keep fighting for our communities. …When is it going to be enough? When somebody gets shot in the streets of Los Angeles? When a member gets shot?' he said before trailing off as he became overcome with emotion. But many also urged caution and stressed the need to respond peacefully. 'They are trying to stage as many violent and political provocations as possible. And so we're in a dangerous situation right now. So I urge everybody on our side to act with maximum restraint and in the best traditions of non-violence,' Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told The Hill before referencing Trump's Saturday parade. 'Because Donald Trump has a $100 million military extravaganza parade coming to Washington. They told people not to come to work on Friday. And he's threatening to send troops to other cities. So I regard the situation with immense gravity.' The potential for charges for Democrats engaging with law enforcement are no small matter. McIver, who was indicted by a grand jury this week after the administration accused her of using her forearms to attack law enforcement, could face up to 17 years if convicted. Democrats have called the prosecution a politically motivated case that twists her efforts to brace herself in the scuffle. And while Padilla is the only lawmaker who has been handcuffed, a staffer for Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) was also handcuffed after Department of Homeland Security officers pushed their way into the office without a warrant while looking for those protesting arrests at immigration courthouses. At the same time, there are risks to law enforcement, though it's highly unlikely the Trump administration would pursue any charges. 'These thugs who manhandled the senator probably don't know it's a federal offense to attack a member of Congress, but that's not what it's about,' Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on the Capitol steps. 'It shouldn't be anybody in our country [who is] treated this way. So we speak out for Senator Padilla. We're speaking out for everyone who has a right to speak.' Shortly after Padilla was removed, Noem addressed the matter, saying the lawmaker behaved inappropriately but said she would meet with him, which she did not long after the press conference ended. 'I think everyone would agree that wasn't appropriate,' she said. 'When I leave here I'll find him and visit and find out really what his concerns were. I think everybody in America would agree that that wasn't appropriate, that if you wanted to have a civil discussion, especially as a leader, a public official, that you would reach out and try to have a conversation,' she said. The Department of Homeland Security later incorrectly said Padilla failed to identify himself and said he was not wearing his Senate pin, though he was wearing a shirt with the Senate logo on it. Few Republicans have answered Democrats' calls to rebuke the response to Padilla. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) called the incident 'horrible.' 'It's horrible. It is shocking at every level. It's not the America I know,' she said. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said, 'it looks like he's being manhandled and physically removed, and it's hard to imagine a justification for that.' But Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) leveled criticism at Padilla for missing scheduled votes that day. 'I think he should have been here in Washington voting,' Barrasso told reporters. 'He has a responsibility to his constituents to show up at work,' he continued. 'Not to go try to make a spectacle of himself.' For his part, Padilla was also surprised by his treatment, saying in an interview with Pod Save America that it took 'maybe half a second for multiple agents to be on me.' He said he snapped when he heard Noem describe herself as in Los Angeles to 'liberate' the city from its governor and mayor, motivating him to interject. He encouraged people to 'continue to speak up.' 'We have First Amendment rights in this country. Speak up, protest peacefully. But continue to speak up because Donald Trump would want nothing more than for all of us to just cower away and say nothing, and let him continue to abuse his power,' he said. 'We cannot let this be the norm.' But in the aftermath of the incident, he said he's left wondering what happens when there aren't cameras rolling, and people who do not have powerful positions like the one he holds encounter DHS and ICE agents conducting the raids. 'If a senator asking a question scares them so much that they'll deploy agents to put a United States senator in handcuffs, imagine what they're doing to people out there, maybe subject to an immigration raid, who have a question…may be requesting their lawyer but not getting that opportunity,' he said. 'These are dangerous times for the United States of America.'
Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Wasn't the president supposed to be deporting criminals?
This will strike the literal-minded as illogical, but I think Huntington Park Mayor Arturo Flores, a Marine veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, had a righteous point when he declared at a news conference with Southern California mayors that immigrants being rounded up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in communities like his 'are Americans, whether they have a document or they don't.' 'The president keeps talking about a foreign invasion,' Flores told me Thursday. 'He keeps trying to paint us as the other. I say, 'No, you are dealing with Americans.'' California's estimated 1.8 million undocumented immigrants who have lived among us for years, for decades, who work and pay taxes here, who have sent their American-born children to schools here, have all the responsibilities of citizens minus many of the rights. Yes, technically, they have broken the law. (For that matter, so has President Trump, a felon, and he continues to violate the Constitution day after day, as his mounting court losses attest.) But our region's undocumented Mexican and Central American immigrants are inextricably embedded in our lives. They care for our children, build our homes, dig our ditches, trim our trees, clean our homes, hotels and businesses, wash our dishes, pick our crops, sew our clothes. Lots own small businesses, are paying mortgages, attend universities, rise in their professions. In 2013, I wrote about Sergio Garcia, the first undocumented immigrant admitted to the California Bar. Since then, he has become a U.S. citizen and owns a personal injury law firm. These Californians are far less likely to break the law than native-born Americans, and they do not deserve the reign of terror being inflicted on them by the Trump administration, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has pointlessly but theatrically called in the Marines. 'So we started off by hearing the administration wanted to go after violent felons gang members, drug dealers,' said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who organized the mayors' news conference last week, 'but when you raid Home Depot and workplaces, when you tear parents and children apart, and when you run armored caravans through our streets, you're not trying to keep anyone safe. You're trying to cause fear and panic.' And please, let's not forget that when Congress came together and hammered out a bipartisan immigration reform bill under President Biden, Trump demanded Republicans kill it because he did not want a rational policy, he wanted to be able to keep hammering Democrats on the issue. But it seems there is more going on here than rounding up undocumented immigrants and terrorizing their families. We seem to have entered the 'punish California' phase of Trump 2.0. 'Trump has a hyperfocus on California, on how to hurt the economy and cause chaos, and he is really doubling down on that campaign,' Flores told me. He has a point. 'We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and this mayor placed on this country,' Noem told reporters Thursday at a news conference in the Westwood federal building, during which California Sen. Alex Padilla was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed face down for daring to ask her a question. 'We are not going away.' So now we're talking about regime change? (As former Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe put it on Bluesky, the use of military force aimed at displacing democratically elected leaders 'is the very definition of a coup.') Noem's noxious mix of willful ignorance and inflammatory rhetoric is almost too ludicrous to mock. It goes hand in hand with Trump's silly declaration that our city has been set aflame by rioters, that without the military patrolling our streets, Los Angeles 'would be a crime scene like we haven't seen in years,' and that 'paid insurrectionists' have fueled the anti-ICE protests. What we are seeing play out in the news and in our neighborhoods is the willful infliction of fear, trauma and intimidation designed to spark a violent response, and the warping of reality to soften the ground for further Trump administration incursions into blue states, America's bulwark against his autocratic aspirations. For weeks, Trump has been scheming to deprive California — probably illegally — of federal funding for public schools and universities, citing resistance to his executive orders on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, on immigration, on environmental regulations, etc. And yet, because he is perhaps the world's most ignorant head of state, he seems to have suddenly realized that crippling the California economy might be bad politics for him. On Thursday, he suggested in his own jumbled way that perhaps deporting thousands of the state's farm and hospitality workers might cause pain to his friends, their employers. (Central Valley growers and agribusiness PACs, for example, overwhelmingly supported Trump in 2024.) 'Our farmers are being hurt badly by, you know, they have very good workers. They've worked for them for 20 years,' Trump said. 'They're not citizens, but they've turned out to be, you know, great. And we're going to have to do something about that.' Like a lot of Californians, I feel helpless in the face of this assault on immigrants. I thought about a Guatemalan, a father of three young American-born children, who has a thriving business hauling junk. I met him a couple of years ago at my local Home Depot, and have hired him a few times to haul away household detritus. Once, after I couldn't get the city to help, he hauled off a small dune's worth of sand at the end of my street that had become the local dogs' pee pad. I called him this week — I have more stuff that I need to get rid of, and I was pretty sure he could use the work. Early Friday morning, he arrived on time with two workers. He said hadn't been able to work in two weeks but was hopeful he'd be able to return to Home Depot soon. 'How are your kids doing?' I asked. 'They worry,' he said. 'They ask, 'What will we do if you're deported?'' He tells them not to fret, that things will soon be back to normal. After he drove off, he texted: 'Thank you so much for helping me today. God bless you.' No, God bless him. For working hard. For being a good dad. And for still believing, against the odds, in the American dream. @ @rabcarian
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Will Texas lawmakers have a special session to redraw Congressional districts?
Members of Congress and state lawmakers have been all abuzz this past week ever since the New York Times reported on a plan to have Texas legislators redraw the state's Congressional districts to help Republicans gain more seats in the Lone Star State. The Times report said President Trump's advisers want Governor Greg Abbott to call lawmakers into a special session to come up with a new map of Congressional districts. If Republicans could gain more seats in Texas, the thought is that it would blunt any potential gains by Democrats in U.S. House seats in other states during the midterm elections next year. Most of the 38 Congressional districts in Texas are considered safe for the Republicans and Democrats who represent them. A federal judge in El Paso is now holding a trial to determine if these Congressional districts that were drawn and approved in 2021 are constitutional. In an interview for Eye On Politics, Texas Representative Jeff Leach, R-Allen, told CBS News Texas he's heard about this issue. "I have read the story and have seen all the news that's been going around and have been in communication with our counterparts in Washington and with Governor's office and the Speaker's office, Lieutenant Governor. We're going to do what's right for Texas and we're going to do what's lawful," said Leach. "We're going to see what happens over the next few weeks. If the Governor calls us back into special session, whether it's on redistricting or any other matter, when we'll show back up to Austin and we'll do our jobs." U.S. Representative Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, told CBS News Texas that he saw the story and that he doesn't know much else about it. "Even a lot of our Republican colleagues don't know much about this. I know they're supposed to meet and talk about this. If the courts don't demand a redraw, it seems very communistic. I think that it's wrong. I think that it's absolutely nuts." In an interview for Eye On Politics, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he has not been involved in the conversations pertaining to this story. "I saw the same report you referenced. It's clear the state has the authority to do this, to redistrict mid-decade. You'll remember back 20 years ago, in 2003, I was the Solicitor General of Texas, the chief lawyer for the state in front of the U.S. Supreme Court and Texas did this back in the early 2000's, and it was challenged in court. I defended it in court. It ended up going to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the argument that the Democrat plaintiffs brought was that the state could not redistrict in the middle of the decade. We won in the U.S. Supreme Court. I argued the case and we won. The State has the authority to do so. That's a decision for the state legislature, and for the Governor to make." Governor Abbott has not commented on the New York Times story. Watch the full interview with Rep. Leach below: Watch the full interview with Rep. Veasey below: Watch the full interview with Senator Cruz below:
