Murkowski: I don't know how Trump could be elected again

[brooklynite]

Source: The Hill

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said on Wednesday that she couldn’t imagine that former President Trump would be elected again after voters see the details and new footage of the Capitol attack.

“After the American public sees the full story laid out here ... I don’t see how Donald Trump could be reelected to the presidency again,” Murkowski told reporters.

Murkowski’s comments come as House impeachment managers are hours into their opening presentations.

On Wednesday, impeachment managers showed never-before-seen security footage of lawmakers evacuating the Capitol, rioters breaking into the building, and close calls for Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/538334-murkowski-i-dont-know-how-trump-could-be-elected-again

---

So, we'll put her down as a "maybe"?

[berni_mccoy]

1. She's floating the balloon to say Republicans don't need to convict

Because he can never win again.

[Irish_Dem]

5. Geez they are slime bags aren't they?

Anything to avoid taking any responsibility and do their jobs.

[riversedge]

24. damn--you may have hit it spot on

[Vivienne235729]

27. This is so ridiculous! They need to vote to indict trump.

[berni_mccoy]

28. Don't count on it. These GOP senators have no soul

Only a handful will vote to convict.

I predict maybe 6. No more than 12.

[Vivienne235729]

29. I sadly, I know you are right. But it still angers me that they are willing to acquit him

When there is a mountain of damning evidence like this. Just shameless in their corruption.

[Geechie]

40. She's forgetting

Americans have the attention span of a gnat, and no memory beyond last week.

[Vogon_Glory]

56. Unless it's about Chappaquiddick, Bill Clinton's pee-pee or Benghazi

Then they remember just fine.

To right-wing lurkers suspecting that I want Republicans thrown out of office and sent to the political wilderness: yes, you’re right, I do. Forty years is a bare minimum.

[Geechie]

58. On point.

40 years is how long we’ve been living with the fucked up Ray-Gun legacy. Only fair...

[Nitram]

46. Exactly!

Murkowski and Collins are liars and hypocrites.

[Pachamama]

2. I know a way...

If the Senate doesn’t convict him, remove him and prohibit him from ever holding public office

[Irish_Dem]

3. Quite a few Americans probably like what they saw today.

Wake up Lisa.

[lastlib]

42. Hey, Lisa! Let's not take the chance, huh, okay??

If he's acquitted, this election and its aftermath becomes a damn TRAINING VIDEO, can'tcha see, dear*? We're not doing an Act 2 here, you damn bleepin' moron!


(*This term is used solely as a salutory expression--NOT to be construed as an indication of actual affection, of which we have NONE for you.)

[50 Shades Of Blue]

4. So is she going to vote for acquittal based on that excuse?

[StevieM]

8. I don't think she is saying that she will vote for acquittal.

Just that she doesn't think he could win again.

Whether he can or cannot, he will most likely run again in 2024.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

16. I dunno, my first impression upon reading her statement was that it's an out for Repugs.

"Oh, he can't get elected again anyway after this, so I don't need to vote to convict him."

[mr_lebowski]

51. Yes, it's very Susan Collins ...

Along the lines of 'he's learned his lesson'.

Fug these people.

[yaesu]

6. oh, what a fool. nt

[TomSlick]

7. Yeah but how many people said in 2016 that Trump was un-electable?

There is a core of Trump supporters (small but extant) that will find the actions of January 6 to be a reason to vote for Trump - not against him. As to the rest, the collective memory of Americans is short.

Murkowski is not suggesting she will vote to convict. She is justifying why she will not.

The best hope for ending the Trump political career is criminal convictions.

[Lasher]

21. I was one of them.

If Murkiwski doesn't vote to convict she will hide behind the lie that the Senate trial is unconstitutional. That's still a lie, but it's more believable than Trump is innocent.

[TomSlick]

22. I think what she is setting up is a two-prong lie:

She will justify her vote to acquit saying the trial is unconstitutional but it's irrelevant anyway - Trump could never be elected again.

I cannot condemn her too much, the Arkansas Senators will vote to acquit because that is what a majority in Arkansas want.

[BigmanPigman]

9. She and Collins are such great prophets.

I think they use the Magic 8 Ball to decide which action to take on an issue. That is how important this process is to them.

Well good, because God knows there aren’t enough idiots to ever elect anybody criminally unqualified for the job. We can just rely on your prophesy.

Link to tweet

?s=20

[Oldem]

31. Yes, during the first impeachment,

Collins said she thought the president had learned "a pretty big lesson." I wonder what she'll say this time. If he's acquitted, the lesson he'll learn is that he really can shoot somebody on 5th Ave. and not lose a single voter.

[LuckyLib]

50. These Senators are jurors and many are witnesses. They need to

shut up and let the process proceed. Keep your masks on and your mouths shut!

[El Supremo]

10. She's up for reelection in 2022.

So she'll not vote for conviction. It's a "well duh" in Alaska.

[LeftInTX]

17. I dunno

Alaska has population of only 917,000. She won as a write-in against a Tea Party Republican who beat her in the 2010 primary. That's basically like running for mayor in the city of about the size of Austin. I think the small population worked in her favor.

She could vote either way......

[Still Sensible]

11. After five years plus of this clown show

I can't confidently guess what the landscape will look like in 2024. We have optimism for the job this administration is doing and confidence that we will have competent leadership going forward... but somebody will pick up the mantle of this son of a bitch and try to run with it. And I'm okay with that so long as it is not again this son of a bitch!

[dem4decades]

12. Same way Republican Senators can vote not to convict.

[handmade34]

13. "I don't know how Trump could be elected..."

well, I didn't know how he could have been elected in 2016 “After the American public saw what was shown about him" at that time... "the American people have not all learned their lesson"

[dem4decades]

14. Same way Republican Senators can vote not to convict.

[LogicFirst]

15. Murkowski speaks with forked tongue. She would vote for him.

[turtleblossom]

18. Very easily. GOP is not a party, it's a CULT.

They believe Tяump is their god...

[TomDaisy]

19. sounds like she's making excuses

[chowder66]

20. He grabbed the base by the pussy and he'll do it again because they let him.

[bucolic_frolic]

23. Covid buried his 2020 campaign, and the Jan 6 evidence will do the same for 2024

He's not going to age well, and the evidence is factual that cannot be well mitigated.

[Gore1FL]

25. I imagine Ivanka calling the seditionists "patriots" on 1/6 won't help her ambitions.

I expect there to be faithful supporters, but the attack ads write themselves.

[orleans]

26. ugh. we'll see how the votes come out. remember suzy thought trump learned his lesson. ugh. nt

[Miguelito Loveless]

30. Easy.

Your colleagues and you acquit him. And he runs in 2024. Actually, he won't wait that long, he will try to raise another insurrection since there is no penalty for trying.

[hadEnuf]

32. Hey Murkowski, Trump doesn't believe he needs to be elected to hold office.

Kind of what this whole impeachment is about, you ass-kissing traitor.

Sorry, your boss doesn't get off that easy.

[Jedi Guy]

33. I'm really surprised they're unwilling to convict, for one simple reason.

If they acquit and he runs again in 2024, he'll win their primary. He knows it, they know it. His ability to run again is the kiss of death for any Republican with presidential aspirations in the next election cycle. Leaving that door open for him does nothing but extend his dominance into the next cycle.

On the flip side, voting to convict locks him out of politics for good. Now that he's been muzzled by social media, his ability to whip his followers into a frenzy is hamstrung. In four years, some of his kooky followers may still be salty that they "turned" on him, but most will have moved on. Voting to convict allows them to, as a party, say "we repudiate him and what he stands for."

The only reasons to acquit are that they agree with him and his agenda, or they're shit-scared of his followers. Voting to convict safeguards their chances at winning the 2024 primary and, more importantly, is better for the country.

[maxsolomon]

34. Babe in the woods.

So naive, so unschooled in the ways of Fascism...

[Warpy]

35. Murkowski bucks the party just often enough

to have a 20% progressive rating, I looked it up a couple of days ago.

I don't hold out a lot of hope for the Old Boys' Club. Well, maybe Romney, but he's got enough money to thumb his nose at the rest.

[tiredtoo]

36. Not sure about that

Put her down as a maybe? She may just be excusing her vote to acquit. "I didn't think he could get elected again so..."

[uberblonde]

37. So I won't have to take that really uncomfortable vote...

"Right?"

[Bayard]

38. He could win again the same way he did the first time

Massive scale cheating. You know--that thing he projects onto Dems.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

39. WELL I DONT KNOW how he could have been elected the first time- and yet it happened. Its cos people

Miz LisaM. decided to be enablers and allowed it to happen.

[summer_in_TX]

41. Murkowski is NOT a maybe, she voted to proceed to trial.

At the first impeachment the only reason she didn't vote to convict then was that there was a solid wall of R opposition and Dems were in the minority. She gave me the distinct impression then that she thought their case had merit.

I believe all she was doing was saying that if the speculation that there won't be enough R votes to convict him, she believes the evidence is so damning that he won't ever win, even if he isn't banned.



Murkowski votes to proceed with 2nd impeachment; Sullivan votes to stop


Murkowski Is Latest G.O.P. Senator to Signal Possible Support for Convicting Trump

[MontanaMama]

43. Murkowski is laying the groundwork

for the Susan Collins defense of “he’s learned his lesson” or “the public knows better than to re-elect him”. They’re pathetic.

[Hulk]

44. She's got to be just about as naive as collins.....

This is the republiKKKan female politician. Either they are dumb as a box of rocks, or something bat-shit crazy like blackburn or that nightmare from Minnesota...the rep. What an embarrassment of a jackass. (I don't even want to remember her name.....what an ass.)

[patphil]

45. Maybe it's a maybe...perhaps a maybe...could be a maybe.

These Republicans really don't have an ounce of courage, let alone integrity.

I seriously doubt that more than 5 or 6 Republicans will vote to convict. Only those who plan to retire before re-election or who are 6 years away from their next election.

The Republicans have turned the party of Lincoln into the party of stinkin.

[Dan]

47. As had been said before,

it is not that he might or might not be elected again - it is that he is a clear and present danger to the Nation!

[WinstonSmith4740]

48. She may not be able to see how Trump could be elected again...

But she'll never vote to impeach. And that's exactly the excuse she'll use, "It should be up to the voters, but surely they won't make that mistake again." Uh-huh. Towers of jell-o. All of them.

[SunSeeker]

49. Well, most people (including Trump himself) didn't think he'd be elected in 2016.

And yet it happened. That is why he must be banned from holding office.

[The Jungle 1]

52. Republicans support treason

[twodogsbarking]

53. I would like to see

Gorilla Glue sprayed on Trump's hair or whatever that shit on his head is.

[dlk]

55. Way to sound completely disingenuous, Lisa

With the high levels of Republicans gerrymandering and voter suppression only being ramped up, Lisa know exactly why Trump or someone just like him could be elected again. Even so, that's no excuse for not holding him accountable for causing the heinous insurrection.

[jeffreyi]

57. I don't know how a mob of murderous goons could overwhelm the capitol

And spread blood and feces and zip ties everywhere and maim and murder and terrorise.

[Marthe48]

59. Only positive is trump is an old man

if his followers are willing to murder unarmed senior citizens, they won't want to have one as a leader

[Dorian Gray]

60. You, Lisa Murkowski,

are a damn fool!