Liz Cheney is no fan of Ronna Romney McDaniel’s. “Ronna,” she tweeted, “facilitated Trump’s corrupt fake elector plot & his effort to pressure Michigan officials not to certify the legitimate election outcome. She spread his lies and called 1/6 ‘legitimate political discourse.’ That’s not ‘taking one for the team.’ It’s enabling criminality and depravity.” That was right after McDaniel’s Meet the Press interview in which she finally admitted that Biden won the election “fair and square” and that she doesn’t support freeing those charged and convicted with crimes related to January 6th— something Señor T has promised to do if re-elected. I’m pretty sure Cheney will vote for Biden to keep Trump out of the White House. I wonder how long it will take McDaniel to come to that.
The son of Oath Keeper founder Stewart Rhodes, Dakota Adams, age 27, already has. In fact, he’s running for the Montana state legislature as a Democrat, “building a new life since breaking free from his father’s control— juggling work, college classes and volunteer firefighting… Adams knows it won’t be easy running as a Democrat for the House in the deep red northwestern corner of Montana. The district covers northern Lincoln County, a mecca for militia members or sympathizers and doomsday preppers. Republican Donald Trump won 74% of the county vote in the 2020 presidential race.”
And as long as we’re speculating on Republicans going all the way… what about Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski? I’m pretty sure that in the privacy of the voting booth, she’ll pull the lever for her friend Rep Mary Peltola (D)… and for Joe Biden. Will she admit she’s for Biden? She hasn’t been shy about saying she’d never vote for Trump. Manu Raju interviewed her for CNN and she went so far as to admit she’s considering leaving the Republican Party entirely!
The veteran Alaska Republican, one of seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial amid the aftermath of January 6, 2021, is done with the former president and said she “absolutely” would not vote for him.
“I wish that as Republicans, we had … a nominee that I could get behind,” Murkowski told CNN. “I certainly can’t get behind Donald Trump.”
The party’s shift toward Trump has caused Murkowski to consider her future within the GOP. In the interview, she would not say if she would remain a Republican.
Asked if she would become an independent, Murkowski said: “Oh, I think I’m very independent minded.” And she added: “I just regret that our party is seemingly becoming a party of Donald Trump.”
Pressed on if that meant she might become an independent, Murkowski said: “I am navigating my way through some very interesting political times. Let’s just leave it at that.”
…She lost a primary in 2010 to Republican Joe Miller, only to later hold on to her seat after she became the second candidate ever to win a write-in campaign for Senate in the general election.
Murkowski skated to reelection in her next two elections, even after voting to convict Trump in 2021, voting against Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court in 2018 and supporting Ketanji Brown Jackson in 2022. She had been targeted by Trump and his allies in 2022 but was backed by Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and his high-spending outside group.
In the 2024 cycle, Murkowski– along with Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine– offered a late endorsement of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, just days before she dropped out of the race.
Now, Murkowski is clear she’s ready to move past Trump. Asked about Trump’s recent comments that Jewish people who vote for Democrats must “hate” their religion, Murkowski said it was an “incredibly wrong and an awful statement.”
And Murkowski pushed back when asked last week about Trump’s other controversial rhetoric, namely that he views January 6 prisoners as “hostages” and “patriots” who should be pardoned.
“I don’t think that it can be defended,” Murkowski said. “What happened on January 6 was… an effort by people who stormed the building in an effort to stop an election certification of an election. It can’t be defended.”
Last month Sara Voght spoke with former Trump staffers who are openly talking about voting for Biden, like his former deputy press secretary, Sarah Matthews. “We can survive bad policy from a second Biden administration,” she said, “but I don’t think we can survive a second Trump term, in terms of our democracy.” White House Comms director Alyssa Farah Griffin isn’t certain she’s going to vote for Biden but said “Trump is a threat to democracy, and I will never support him… If Joe Biden remains where he’s been on aid to Ukraine and support for Israel, it’ll be much easier to get there.” When Mark Meadows was Trump’s chief of staff, Cassidy Hutchinson was Meadows’ chief of staff— and she’s all in on voting for Biden… and telling other anti-Trump Republicans to do likewise: “We all need to be putting 100 percent in until the election to make sure that this doesn’t happen— that he’s not reelected.”
Voght wondered “Just how serious are some of the anti-Trump Republicans about keeping him out of the Oval Office? Serious enough that these dissenting former officials would actually vote for Biden? Ty Cobb, who served as Trump’s special counsel is voting for Biden. Former AG Bill Barr and former national security advisor John Bolton won’t.
Illinois Republican former Rep Adam Kinzinger would never vote for Trump and will vote for Biden. “There is no question who I would support. I believe in America way more than I believe in the Republican Party... To me, that’s not even a question I would have to wrestle with.”