WATCH: Lisa Murkowski Stares Down Reporter Grilling Her About Voting for Trump Bill in Wildly Awkward Confrontation
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Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) — who cast the decisive vote in the Senate on Tuesday to pass President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful” bill — got into a tense confrontation with a reporter who questioned the senator about her big vote.
In what was a truly awkward standoff posted to X on Tuesday afternoon, NBC News chief Capitol Hill correspondent pressed Murkowski by relaying criticism from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) — a staunch opponent of the bill who called out Murkowski for extracting last-minute concessions for her home state.
“Senator Paul said that this was… that your vote was a bailout for Alaska at the expense of the rest of the country,” Nobles said.
Murkowski — who was walking down a hallway — stopped dead in her tracks.
“Oh my!” Murkowski said, clearly exasperated.
“That’s what Senator Paul said,” Nobles replied.
And then Murkowski stood directly in front of Nobles and stared at him for eight uninterrupted seconds. Finally, Nobles tried to break the tension by appealing to Murkowski not to shoot the messenger.
“I didn’t say it, ma’am, I’m just asking for your response,” Nobles said.
Murkowski stared at Nobles for another three seconds, before finally speaking up.
“My response is, I have an obligation to the people of the state of Alaska,” she said. “And I live up to that every single day. I fight for my state’s interests, and I make sure that Alaskans are understood. I work hard to take care of a state that has more unique… situations, more unique people, and it’s just different. And so, when people suggest that federal dollars go to one of our 50 states in a — quote — bail out, I find that offensive. I advocated for my state’s interests. I will continue to do that, and I will make no excuses for doing that.”
The senator made clear her overall issues with the legislation, but reiterated that she was looking out for her home state.
“Do I like this bill?” Murkowski said. “No. Because I tried to take care of Alaska’s interests. But I know that in many parts of the country, there are Americans that are not going to be advantaged by this bill. I don’t like that. I don’t like the fact that we moved through an artificial deadline, an artificial timeline, to produce something to meet a deadline, rather than to actually try to produce the best bill for the country. But when I saw the direction that this is going, you can either say, I don’t like it, not try to help my state, or you can roll up your sleeves.”
Watch above, via @ryanobles on X.
