Sen. Lisa Murkowski isn’t saying if she’ll vote to convict President Trump, but she did say he unlawfully incited violence and the House was right to impeach him.
“For months, the President has perpetrated false rhetoric that the election was stolen and rigged, even after dozens of courts ruled against these claims,” she said in a statement issued by her office.
She said Trump then launched a pressure campaign to get Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of the election he lost.
“On the day of the riots, President Trump’s words incited violence, which led to the injury and deaths of Americans — including a Capitol Police officer — the desecration of the Capitol, and briefly interfered with the government’s ability to ensure a peaceful transfer of power,” she wrote. “Such unlawful actions cannot go without consequence and the House has responded swiftly, and I believe, appropriately, with impeachment.”
She said she’ll listen carefully to the arguments during the Senate trial and will announce her decision after that.
Murkowski voted against the first Trump impeachment, which she called a partisan effort.
RELATED: ‘I can’t just be quiet right now’: Murkowski says Trump needs to resign
She called on him to resign last week, but said then a second impeachment would consume Congress just as Biden was trying to confirm his cabinet.
This time, Congress is moving faster than many thought possible. The House took only a few days, rather than months, to draw up an article of impeachment and pass it.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
