A moderate Republican senator finally broke his silence on former President Trump’s conviction on Friday, lamenting that the “Trump courtroom drama” is taking attention away from President Biden’s “indefensible record.”
“These disruptions have allowed the Biden campaign to get away with it, shifting the focus from Biden’s inexcusable record and the damage his policies have done to Alaska and our economy to Trump’s legal drama,” Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski wrote on X. “Any Republican candidate without these issues would have a clear path to victory.”
Republicans, who often feature as intraparty detractors on divisive issues, declined to say whether they would approve of the ruling.
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Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska released a statement on Friday reacting to the conviction of former President Donald Trump. (Getty Images)
The Alaska senator made headlines when he made a last-minute endorsement of former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley for the Republican presidential nomination just before the end of the campaign.
While Haley has frequently pointed to Trump’s legal troubles and the “turmoil” that is expected to ensue in his 2024 campaign, she has similarly avoided taking a position on whether the lawsuits are right or wrong.
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“Yesterday, a New York jury found former President Trump guilty of falsifying business records,” Murkowski wrote on Friday. “This is the first step in the legal process. The former president has a right to appeal, and I fully expect him to exercise that right.”
But she said it’s “disappointing that this election has focused on personalities and legal issues, rather than debates about policies that will improve the lives of Americans.”
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Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was more outspoken about her opinion of the ruling than Murkowski. (Anna Rose Layden/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Many of Murkowski’s fellow Republican senators quickly issued reactions to the ruling, most of them expressing disagreement with the outcome. Even Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who often lines up with Murkowski, condemned the ruling on Thursday.
“It is a cornerstone of our American justice system that the government prosecutes defendants for alleged criminal conduct, regardless of who they are. In this case, the opposite has happened: a District Attorney who promised during the campaign to prosecute Donald Trump has instead prosecuted defendants because of who they are, not any specific criminal conduct,” the congressmen said in a statement.
“The political context of this case further blurs the lines between our judicial and electoral systems, and this decision is likely to be the subject of a lengthy appeals process,” Collins said.
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Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah did not issue a statement on the ruling. (Drew Ungerer/Getty Images)
Collins also acknowledged that she did not support Trump in the Republican primary and voted for Haley instead.
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who has often emerged as an ally of Murkowski and Collins on certain issues, did not issue his own statement on Trump’s conviction.
Romney’s office did not immediately comment when contacted by Fox News Digital.
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But earlier this month, Romney argued that President Biden made a mistake by not pardoning Trump. “Some people may disagree with this, but if I were President Biden, I would have pardoned him immediately when the Department of Justice brought the indictment,” Romney said in an interview on MSNBC.
“I would have pardoned President Trump. Why? Because I, President Biden, would be the big man and the person I pardon would be the little man,” Romney explained.
