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Fox News
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Republican senator calls caucusing with Democrats an 'interesting hypothetical'
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, called the prospect of caucusing with Democrats an "interesting hypothetical," but she fell short of fully committing to doing so if the Democrats pick up three seats in the 2027 midterms. "It's an interesting hypothetical," Murkowski said on the "GD Politics" podcast with Galen Druke. "You started off with the right hook here, is if this would help Alaskans." The senator is promoting her new book, a memoir titled, "Far From Home." She was repeatedly asked if she would caucus with Democrats if the party divide in the upper chamber of Congress becomes 50-50 after the next election. "That's why this book is kind of scary, because now people know what motivates me, and it's this love for Alaska and what I can do," she said. "So, that's my primary goal. I have to figure out how I can be most effective for the people that I serve." Murkowski said the "problem" she had with Druke's hypothetical was that "as challenged as we may be on the Republican side, I don't see the Democrats being much better." She said the Democrats also have policies that she inherently disagrees with. "I can't be somebody that I'm not," Murkowski said, describing how she received pressure to run as a Libertarian after narrowly losing the GOP Senate primary in 2010. She went on to win as a write-in candidate in a historic victory, launching her Senate career. "I can't now say that I want this job so much that I'm going to pretend to be somebody that I'm not. That's not who I am." Druke, arguing that Murkowski would not have to become a Democrat to caucus with them, asked, "Is there world in which by becoming unaligned or an independent that you could help Alaskans, you'd consider it?" "There may be that possibility," she said, noting that the Alaska legislature currently features a coalition with members of both parties. "This is one of the things that I think is good and healthy for us, and this is one of the reasons people are not surprised that I don't neatly toe the line with party initiatives, because we've kind of embraced a governing style that says if you've got good ideas, and you can work with her over there, it doesn't make any difference if you're a Republican or Democrat," Murkowski said. "We can govern together for the good of the state." "If Democrats won three seats in the next election and offered you a way to pass bills that benefit Alaskans if you caucused with them, you'd consider it?" Druke pressed. Murkowski said in response that a coalition is "not foreign to Alaskans," but it is at the federal level in the U.S. Senate. "I'm evading your answer, of course, because it is so, extremely hypothetical, but you can tell that the construct that we're working with right now, I don't think is the best construct," Murkowski said, adding: "Is it something that's worthy of exploration?" Murkowski joked that Druke was trying to "make news" and said the rank-choice voting system in Alaska means candidates are more likely to get elected if they are not viewed as wholly partisan. "It is a different way of looking at addressing our problems rather than just saying it's red and it's blue," she added. Druke hammered the senator again, saying, "Was that a yes? There's some openness to it?" "There's some openness to exploring something different than the status quo," she said. Murkowski, one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict President Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial after the Jan. 6 riot, recently called the July 4 deadline that GOP leadership wants to pass Trump's "big, beautiful bill" by "arbitrary." "I don't want us to be able to say we met the date, but our policies are less than we would want," Murkowski told Axios. "Why are we afraid of a conference? Oh my gosh." Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., are hesitant about going to conference with the upcoming debt ceiling "X date" approaching and the party lines so tight. Murkowski, a critic of Trump's foreign policy, particularly on Ukraine, told the Washington Post that she was in a "lonely position" in the Senate, and sometimes feels "afraid" to speak up among Republican colleagues out of fear of retaliation. "We used to be called the world's greatest deliberative body," she told the Post in a recent interview promoting her book. "I think we're still called it, but now I wonder if it's in air quotes."
Politico
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Murkowski suggests she could become an Independent in the right circumstance - Live Updates
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of President Donald Trump's most vocal critics in the Senate GOP, said in a podcast on Monday that there are certain situations in which she'd consider becoming an independent and caucusing with Democrats. 'There may be that possibility,' she told Galen Druke in an interview excerpt of his GD Politics podcast, scheduled to post in full on Tuesday. Druke asked Murkowski how she'd respond if Democrats won three seats in the 2026 midterm election, 'and they say, we're gonna let you pass bills that benefit Alaskans if you caucus with us.' 'You've started off with the right hook here, is 'if this would help Alaskans,'' she told Druke. Murkowski has clashed with Trump several times since he returned to the White House, including accusing him of 'walking away from our allies' after the president's February fight with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. And in May, she criticized the administration for revoking the temporary protected status of Afghan immigrants, calling the move 'a historic betrayal.' In March, Murkowski told reporters her Republican colleagues were 'afraid' of going against Trump and then-ally Elon Musk, and said the pair's work reducing the federal workforce through the Department of Government Efficiency was 'traumatizing people.' 'There is some openness to exploring something different than the status quo,' she told Druke. But switching parties likely isn't the answer, she said in the podcast. 'My problem with your hypothetical is that as challenged as I think we may be on the Republican side, I don't see the Democrats being much better,' Murkowski said. 'And they've got not only their share of problems, but quite honestly, they've got some policies that I just inherently disagree with.' Murkowski's office was unable to provide a comment for this post before publication.
Axios
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Murkowski leaves door open to scenario of caucusing with Democrats
Sen. Lisa Murkowski is leaving the door open to caucusing with Democrats if they managed to produce enough midterm upsets to create a 50-50 tie in 2027. Why it matters: The Alaska Republican is serious about putting her state first, and takes pride in practical wins for her constituents — and bucking her party when necessary. "There is some openness to exploring something different than the status quo," she told the GD Politics podcast. She called caucusing with Democrats as an independent an "interesting hypothetical," but added she has plenty of disagreements with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-N.Y.) conference. Zoom in: Murkowski is on a book tour for her memoir that goes public tomorrow, Far From Home. "I call myself a Republican because of the values I hold, such as personal responsibility, small government, a strong national defense, and the individual's right to make her own choices," she writes in the book's epilogue. In an interview with Axios, she dismissed the self-imposed July 4 deadline the White House and Hill leadership are gunning to meet as "arbitrary." "I don't want us to be able to say we met the date, but our policies are less than we would want." "Why are we afraid of a conference? Oh my gosh," she added. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) are wary of going to conference negotiations with both chambers' tight majorities and the upcoming debt ceiling "X-date." Between the lines: Murkowski also shares some eye-catching personal anecdotes in the book, which spans from before her historic write-in 2010 Senate win through her 2021 vote to convict Trump of impeachment and the overturning of Roe in 2022. Trump once referred to her as "that bitch Murkowski" in a phone call with her late colleague Rep. Don Young, Murkowski writes. "You have nice hair," Trump told her after a 90-minute meeting about Alaska priorities in the Oval Office during his first term. Zoom out: Murkowski shares — in almost agonizing detail — her reasoning and internal debate behind some of the biggest moments of her career. That includes: Choosing to face nepotism charges to accept her initial appointment to the Senate from her father, who was governor at the time. Working with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to allow the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to have his iconic thumbs down moment, preserving the Affordable Care Act in 2017. Joining multiple bipartisan "gangs" to pass legislation with important wins for Alaska. Voting against Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court. Her decisions to first acquit and then convict Trump of his two rounds of impeachment charges. The bottom line: The timing of the book is not meant to signal anything, Murkowski told Axios. She just finally got around to telling the story, with the help of Charles Wohlforth, of when she won a write-in campaign for Senate 15 years ago after losing in the GOP primary. "We joke many times that we tried to stop the book at multiple points," Murkowski told us, "but then, you know, you've got an impeachment or you have an insurrection. And it just seemed like there was not an ending point."
Fox News
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Democrats need their ‘own Trump,' podcaster urges in NY Times
A recent opinion piece in The New York Times said that the key to the Democratic Party succeeding again is having their own version of President Donald Trump. "If the next Democratic nominee wants to build a majority coalition — one that doesn't rely on Republicans running poor-quality candidates to eke out presidential wins and that doesn't write off the Senate as a lost cause — the candidate should attack the Democratic Party itself and offer positions that outflank it from both the right and the left," Galen Druke, host of the "GD Politics" podcast, wrote in a Monday guest essay in The New York Times. "It may seem like an audacious gambit, but a successful candidate has provided them a blueprint: Donald Trump," Druke added. Druke noted that the Democratic Party is "historically unpopular," citing a 2025 Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel and saying that "The Democratic Party's favorability rating is 22 percentage points underwater — 60 percent of respondents view it unfavorably, 38 favorably." He cautioned that Democrats should not look for their own Trump figure who would "violate democratic norms and destabilize American institutions, but rather the one for resetting how Americans view a party and its leaders." Secrets behind Trump's success, Druke said, included the president bucking his own party's stances from both sides of the spectrum. Druke also hinted at the trust Democrats need to rebuild within their base after they "stood by a deeply unpopular president despite clear signs that Democratic voters did not think he was suited to another term." Druke mentioned a recent CNN poll that showed the Democratic Party's favorability rating at a record low among Americans, with 52% to 48% of Democratic-learning voters saying the party is going in the wrong direction. The poll also showed the favorability rating for the Democratic Party at 29%, calling it a "record low" that goes back to 1992, and saying that it was a 20-point drop from January 2021. Druke also said that Democrats should take a page from former President Bill Clinton's playbook and be liberal in terms of healthcare policy, where he says the candidate should push for universal healthcare "far more progressive than the Affordable Care Act," but have more right-leaning policies when it comes to issues like government spending and crime. Democrats should treat social issues similarly, Druke said, adding that the party should "assert that the goal is for all people to be treated with dignity and that Democrats got carried away with ideas that ultimately didn't further that goal." "To be truly successful, the next Democratic nominee will transform how Americans view the Democratic Party as a whole, leading the way to winning voters not currently viewed as 'gettable' in states that have been written off," Druke wrote.
