Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s bid to derail President Donald Trump’s attorney general pick has triggered fury across the MAGA-sphere.
On Friday, Murkowski, 69, posted a statement on X laying out a list of controversies involving Trump’s attorney general nominee, Todd Blanche, 52, who has served as acting attorney general since April and is now seeking Senate confirmation.
“The country needs an Attorney General who will check the worst impulses of this administration. I hope Mr. Blanche is able to achieve that, if confirmed, but I simply do not have confidence that will be the case,” she wrote.
Murkowski joined Sen. Susan Collins, 73, in opposing Blanche’s confirmation, putting the nomination in jeopardy Friday morning. But Sen. Bill Cassidy, 68, who had been undecided, later announced he would support Blanche, effectively rescuing his confirmation.
Still, given the stakes of Murkowski’s opposition, prominent figures in the MAGA world have erupted over her criticism of Blanche and her decision to vote against his confirmation.
Mike Howell of the Heritage Foundation, the group behind the controversial Project 2025, called Murkowski’s decision “absurd and unprincipled” in response to the Alaska senator’s post on X.
Howell took particular issue with the senator’s claim that the “politicization” and “weaponization” of the Department of Justice has “accelerated” under the current Trump administration, calling Murkowski’s claim “verifiably false.”
He proceeded to defend Blanche’s controversial “Anti-Weaponization” fund, which has been scrapped after bipartisan backlash, arguing that the initiative was still needed.
Last week, Blanche’s confirmation vote was delayed after Republican Sens. John Cornyn, 74, and Thom Tillis, 65, withheld their support until he provided written assurances that the proposed $1.776 billion compensation fund for Trump allies was no longer under consideration. The senators have since backed his nomination after saying they received a “formal order terminating the anti-weaponization fund.”
Right-wing political commentator Benny Johnson, 39, also joined the backlash against Murkowski, accusing the Republican senator of “sabotaging Trump’s agenda and subverting the will of the voters over her hatred for him.” He went on to write: “This is why Republicans lose…"
In a separate post, Johnson criticized Murkowski for voting to confirm former President Joe Biden’s attorney general pick, Merrick Garland, while refusing to support Trump’s nominees.
In her Friday post, Murkowski laid out exactly why she would oppose Blanche’s confirmation, citing his handling of the millions of pages of unreleased Epstein files, the anti-weaponization fund, and the “sweeping immunity protections” granted to the president, among other concerns.
Survivors of the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein also issued a statement on Tuesday condemning the Senate vote in favor of Blanche, alleging that he had dismissed their concerns during a meeting, telling them to “get to the point.”
Conservative activist CJ Pearson, 24, who brands himself a “Gen Z activist,” responded to Murkowski’s statement with a sarcastic jab: “With Republicans like Lisa Murkowski, who even needs Democrats?”
Another X user echoed one of Trump’s past attacks on Hillary Clinton by calling Murkowski a “nasty woman,” while a prominent conservative pundit accused her of being “the worst kind of representative” because “she only represents herself.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Murkowski’s representatives for comment.
Meanwhile, Trump has suggested he could leave Blanche as acting attorney general until he has enough Senate support to confirm him. “If they don’t agree to do what they should do, it’d be very sad, and we’ll all survive. Todd will survive,” he told Punchbowl News on Friday.
The president also chimed in on the backlash against Murkowski, telling the outlet, “I do more for Alaska than any president in history. No president’s done for Alaska what I’ve done. She’s not good.”
