Lisa Murkowski is suddenly “scaring everyone” in the GOP over Brett Kavanaugh vote
This was supposed to be the day that Mitch McConnell pulled a fast one with the severely limited FBI report on Brett Kavanaugh, and then rallied his Republican Party to fall in line behind the disastrous Supreme Court nominee. Instead the day has seen one GOP Senator after another making curious and in some cases outright surprising moves on Kavanaugh. In fact one of the swing votes, Lisa Murkowski, is suddenly “scaring” the rest of her party.
Thus far today we’ve seen GOP Senator Jeff Flake seeking out another conversation with Chris Coons, the Democratic Senator who originally helped talk him into calling for the FBI investigation. We’ve also seen GOP Senator Steve Daines suddenly announce that he can’t vote on Saturday because his daughter is getting married that day (why did he not mention this earlier?). Even as Susan Collins tries to keep her head down, her close ally Lisa Murkowski is taking an entirely different approach.
Murkowski spent the day in this manner, according to MSNBC reporter Garrett Haake: “Lisa Murkowski has been meeting with dozens of Alaskan women privately in her office today, including several sexual assault survivors.” The women who left the meeting said that it was a “very emotional” and very long conversation. At the least, it appears that Murkowski is worried about the blowback against her reelection chances if she votes “yes,” and she’s trying to get a gauge on just how badly this could go for her.
So should the Resistance trust that Lisa Murkowski might actually be on the verge of doing the right thing here? Elaina Plott of The Atlantic, who earlier today broke the story of Flake seeking out the advice of Coons, is now saying that “Murkowski is scaring everyone” in the Republican Senate. Meanwhile, Chuck Grassley is now hinting that the GOP could be four votes down.
