Republican lawmakers are scared sh-tless of Elon Musk
A Republican senator on Tuesday admitted that Republicans are not standing up to President Donald Trump or co-President Elon Musk because they are scared that the richest man on the planet will spend his fortune to kill their electoral prospects.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, one of the few Republicans who has stood up to Trump and Musk's decimation of the federal government, made the comment at a Tuesday news conference at the Alaska Capitol.
"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 just better duck and cover,'" Murkowski said. "It'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 gonna be given names in the media. You know what? We cannot be cowed into not speaking up."
Murkowski's admission comes as Republicans across the country are facing angry constituents at town hall meetings. The constituents are demanding the GOP stand up to Musk, who is taking a chain saw to the federal government and, in the process, harming Americans.
But even as anger swells, the town halls grow bigger, and polls show Trump’s approval rating sinking and that Musk's approval is in the toilet, Republicans are still refusing to criticize Trump and Musk's moves.
In fact, they're praising Musk and demanding that Americans praise him too.
“I think voters are going to reward us,” Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told The Atlantic of Musk's efforts to cut the federal government through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. “The Democrats have made a huge miscalculation by establishing themselves as the party defending waste, fraud, and abuse.”
“I support Elon Musk and DOGE,” Republican Rep. Mike Flood of Nebraska said at a town hall on Tuesday as his constituents booed.
Other Republicans are joining Trump in praising Musk's flailing Tesla car company as Musk whines to Fox News about how his work in the federal government is hurting his business.
“I’m just here trying to make government more efficient," a misty-eyed Musk told Fox Business earlier in March.
The Hill reported in February that Republicans were voting for Trump's unqualified Cabinet nominees and refusing to criticize DOGE because they were scared of Musk's threat to spend his fortune to defeat GOP lawmakers in primaries. In fact, Musk raised that specter again last week, when he was considering putting $100 million into Trump’s political operation for the midterm elections.
But Murkowski's Tuesday comments appear to be the first time a GOP lawmaker has explicitly said Republicans are not doing what they know is right because of their fear of Musk.
"I'm not going to compromise my own integrity by hiding from my words when I feel they need to be spoken," Murkowski said. "I'm going to take the criticism that comes. And it may be that Elon Musk has decided he's going to take the next billion dollars that he makes off of Starlink and put it directly against Lisa Murkowski. And you know what? That may happen. But I'm not giving up one minute, one opportunity, to try to stand up for Alaskans."