Murkowski knocks fellow Senate Republicans for attending Trump trial: ‘Ridiculous’

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) reportedly went after fellow members of her party who have attended former President Trump’s hush money trial in New York.

“Do we have something to do around here other than watch a stupid porn trial? I mean, this is ridiculous,” the Alaska Republican said Tuesday, according to HuffPost, when the outlet asked her about GOP members who have gone to the trial this week.

Those who have joined the former president include House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), former GOP presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Sens. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) an Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.).

Trump seems to be happy with the visible support from his fellow Republicans.

“I do have a lot of surrogates, and they are speaking very beautifully,” Trump said. “We have a lot of great people here to talk to you.”

Trump’s New York hush money trial began last month, marking the first criminal trial of an American president. He has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to reimbursements to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, who paid a porn actress $130,000 prior to the 2016 election to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump, which he denies having.

Johnson pushed back against the hush money trial in remarks outside the Manhattan courthouse Tuesday.

“This is the fifth week that President Trump has been in court for this sham of a trial. They are doing this intentionally to keep him here and keep him off of the campaign trail,” Johnson said. “And I think everybody in the country can see that for what it is.”

“President Trump is innocent of these charges,” he later declared.

Murkowski, who voted to convict the former president in his second impeachment trial back in 2021, has suggested that she is not fully against leaving the Republican Party, noting its shift toward Trump.

“I wish that, as Republicans, we had a nominee that I could get behind. I certainly can’t get behind Donald Trump,” she said in an interview on “Inside Politics With Manu Raju.”

Updated at 12:02 p.m. EDT