Chuck Todd believes Trump pushing Murkowski closer to Dems

Media Chuck Todd believes Trump pushing Murkowski closer to Dems Comments: by Sarah Davis - 06/27/26 6:01 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Sarah Davis - 06/27/26 6:01 PM ET Comments: Link copied

NOW PLAYING

Former NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd warned on Friday that President Trump is isolating some of his own party, after the president criticized GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska).

“The more Trump goes after Murkowski, the more likely the real number Dems will need to take control of the Senate is ‘3’ not 4 — as she has hinted at before, she can decide to caucus with the other side if she chooses,” Todd wrote in a social media post.

Todd said that if the leading Democratic challenger in Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan’s (R) reelection race, Mary Peltola, wins in November, “it would be on brand” for Murkowski to then say ‘my state has indicated they want a Dem senate.’”

The president criticized Murkowski at an event on Friday, telling the crowd that she will “never win another election.”

The Republican senator, who is not up for reelection until 2028, is considered among the more moderate GOP lawmakers in the upper chamber of Congress, and she has broken with the Trump administration on several key issues.

Murkowski has publicly opposed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act — the president’s stated top legislative priority — due to concerns over federal interference in state-run elections.

The senator also recently joined three other Republicans and nearly all Democrats in voting for a war powers resolution to urge the president to withdraw U.S. armed forces from hostilities against Iran.

Trump has sought to make an example out of GOP lawmakers who defy his administration. This midterm cycle, he recruited challengers for several incumbent candidates within his own party, successfully ousting Republican lawmakers Sens. Bill Cassidy (La.) and John Cornyn (Texas) and Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Nancy Mace (S.C.).

The president has celebrated these primary losses, but some critics have suggested that these snubs could make it more difficult for his administration to pass its agenda.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a moderate who has been threatened by Trump, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he answers “to no person or no party in Washington, D.C.”

“I work for the people in Bucks and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania,” Fitzpatrick said. “They’re my bosses. That’s the approach that every member of Congress is supposed to take.”