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Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee lashed out at Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski after she alleged that her GOP colleagues were afraid to challenge President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“I don’t know a single Republican senator who feels that way. Not even one,” Lee wrote on X at around midnight Wednesday evening.
Murkowski, speaking to reporters Tuesday at the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau, described a culture of fear now present within federal departments.
“I get criticized for what I say, and everybody else is like, ‘How come nobody else is saying anything?’ Well, figure it out because they’re looking at how many things are being thrown at me, and it’s like, ‘Maybe I should just duck and cover,’” Murkowski said.
She said that the purging of federal departments under DOGE is “a hit to the morale of the federal workforce.”
Lee’s response on X elicited a response from Musk, who appeared to endorse the Utah senator’s comments by posting two American flag emojis underneath the message.
The Utah Senator recently called for the U.S. to withdraw from the United Nations, arguing that doing so would restore “national sovereignty and fiscal accountability.”
Since Musk’s DOGE started slashing federal jobs, at least 100,000 employees have been terminated across various federal agencies and departments. Tens of thousands of probationary employees have also been let go.
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“Nobody knows, for sure, if they are secure in their federal position,” Murkowski told reporters.
“That’s why you’ve got everybody just like, zip lip, not saying a word because they’re afraid they’re going to be taken down.
“They’re going to be primaried. They’re going to be given names in the media.”
However, she added, “We cannot be cowed into not speaking up.”
Her comments came an hour after she made her annual joint address to Alaska’s legislature, during which she attacked DOGE’s treatment of federal workers and Trump’s orders to freeze federal spending.
Despite being critical of Trump, Murkowski insisted that she would have to find ways to work harmoniously alongside the President.
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She said, “I am not going to be in a position and a place where I just take the strategy that I am going to tear down, at every opportunity, the President of the United States. That’s not constructive.”
Murkowski went on to say that she would now have to “figure out where I can work with them,” “stiffen [her] spine,” and “take the slings and arrows when people say, ‘Why aren’t you a better Republican? And if you’re not, get out of the party.’”
Murkowski formerly voted for President Donald Trump to be convicted for his actions on January 6 and voted against the confirmation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel. Yet, she approved some of Trump’s nominees, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and Tulsi Gabbard as director of National Intelligence.
