GOP Sen Lisa Murkowski admits to constituents she fears speaking out against Trump: 'We are all afraid'

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA: It looks like Sen Lisa Murkowski just pulled back the curtain on what some Republicans are too cautious to say about President Donald Trump.

The moderate Republican from Alaska dropped a bombshell at a conference in Anchorage on Monday, April 14.

Murkowski said, "We are all afraid. It’s quite a statement. But we are in a time and a place where I certainly have not been here before. I’ll tell you, I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real. And that’s not right."

Going rogue in a party of loyalists

Lisa Murkowski’s not exactly new to going against the grain. She’s basically been the black sheep of the Republican family since Donald Trump took the reins.

Back in February, when Trump slammed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, Murkowski warned that the US was "walking away from our allies," the New York Times reported.

She also slammed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for causing a "tremendous amount of unnecessary anxiety" and called out how they were firing federal workers in Alaska. It's worth noting that she was one of only three Republicans who voted not to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

During Trump’s second impeachment trial in 2021, she was one of the seven Republicans who voted to convict him — and the only one up for reelection at the time.

She sided with the Democrats again when it came to confirming Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, becoming one of only three Republicans who voted in favor. Basically, Murkowski’s been consistently coloring outside the lines of her party for a while now.

Last year, she officially broke up with Trump at the ballot box as she refused to vote for him. Instead, she threw her support behind former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. She even flirted with the idea of quitting the GOP altogether.

"I just regret that our party is seemingly becoming a party of Donald Trump," she told CNN. When asked about going independent, Murkowski teased that she's "navigating my way through some very interesting political times. Let’s just leave it at that."

Donald Trump's ex-chief of staff Reince Priebus reacts to Lisa Murkowski's remarks

Even though Lisa Murkowski admits she’s "very anxious" about speaking up, she says she’s not about to shut up now. "That’s what you’ve asked me to do. I’m going to use my voice to the best of my ability,” she told her constituents in Anchorage.

"I have to figure out how I can do my best to help the many who are so anxious and are so afraid," Murkowski added.

But former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, now working as an ABC News contributor, brushed off the senator's comments on Sunday like they were just side effects of speaking out against a fan-favorite reality star.

Priebus offered a half-hearted nod to toning down the rhetoric but then went back to defending Trump. "Certainly, rhetoric should calm down. But ... if she’s talking about the retribution of going against the president and suffering at the ballot box, well, that's the consequence of having a different opinion than a very popular president," he insisted.

Still, he did toss in a bit of backhanded praise, calling her "a senator who does nothing but win elections."

Murkowski, now in her fourth term, isn’t up for reelection until 2028.