Calling Sen. Lisa Murkowski “worse than a Democrat” and a “creature of the Washington, D.C., swamp,” former President Donald Trump delivered Saturday on his vow to campaign against the 20-year incumbent.
With the Alaska primary election next month, Trump led a packed rally Saturday in Anchorage, where he attacked Murkowski and called out Alaska’s other U.S. senator — Dan Sullivan — for not joining him.
“How is it that Sullivan does not denounce Lisa Murkowski for what she has done to this party and this state?” Trump said.
“This is your precious chance to dump the horrific RINO senator, Lisa Murkowski,” Trump told a standing-room-only crowd at the Alaska Airlines Center. “She is worse than a Democrat. She is a creature of the Washington swamp and a tool of a corrupt establishment.”
Most of the address by the former president focused on Murkowski, who was among seven Republican senators who voted to impeach Trump.
Murkowski is up for re-election, and Trump announced more than a year ago that he would find a Republican challenger and come to Alaska to personally campaign against her.
On Saturday, Trump voiced support for the U.S. Senate bid of Kelly Tshibaka, a former Alaska state commissioner running against Murkowski.
“Lisa Murkowski’s opponent Kelly Tshibaka will never stab Alaska voters in the back,” Trump said. “I’ve never seen anyone run so hard. She spent a lot of time in government, and she is taking on a sitting person; that is tough to do.”
Trump also castigated Sullivan, who has said that he backs Murkowski’s re-election. “Murkowski is a bad person,” Trump said. “Sullivan should be ashamed of himself.”
Trump criticized Murkowki’s record of supporting abortion rights, opposing Justice Brett Kavanaugh — his pick for the Supreme Court — and confirming Kentaji Brown Jackson, the first black female Supreme Court justice. He also decried Alaska’s new ranked-choice voting as a “crazy” system that benefits Murkowski’s chances for re-election, and he called for a return to paper ballots.
Trump aired other grievances to a receptive audience. He said the U.S. public school system has become “an arm of the radical left” and told the crowd that “every parent must be able to opt out of the public indoctrination.”
He also spoke in favor of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who is running for Alaska’s only U.S. House seat.
Both Palin and Tshibaka joined Trump on stage for his endorsements.
Palin hugged the former president and urged the crowd to “show President Trump how much we love him … President Trump,” Palin said, “You are home.”
