Top Stories:
House passes Trump’s bill
What’s next for ‘Diddy’
‘Botox dupes’ and botulism
Trump approval rating
America’s favorite baby names
Diddy verdict analysis
Big bill immigration crackdown
Poll: Americans on Iran strike
Beach safety 101
Diddy verdict live updates
The Independent
Democrats quickly turn Murkowski’s Trump megabill confession against her and launch bid to make JD Vance pay
John Bowden
Wed, July 2, 2025 at 6:23 PM GMT+1
5 min read
1.2k
Lisa Murkowski was hammered on social media after voting Tuesday to advance Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” budget reconciliation bill through the Senate and paving the way for its final passage.
After her vote Tuesday, the Alaska senator told reporters in Congress that she hoped the House would make changes to the bill before sending it back to the Senate.
“Reconciliation is never a very dignified process, but we were operating under a timeline that was, basically an artificial timeline,” said the senator. “And I think rather than taking the the deliberative approach to good legislating, we rushed to get a product out.
Advertisement
“My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet,” she said.
“Do I like this bill? No. But I tried to take care of Alaska’s interests.”
That quote went on to be pilloried by numerous Democrat-aligned figures on Twitter and other media platforms.
Lisa Murkowski told reporters she disliked the ‘big, beautiful’ bill after voting for it on Tuesday (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Lisa Murkowski told reporters she disliked the ‘big, beautiful’ bill after voting for it on Tuesday (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
More
House Speaker Mike Johnson is showing no interest in going back to the drawing board, however, even in the face of threats to vote against the legislation from nearly two dozen House Republicans.
“We knew we would come to this moment. We knew the Senate would amend the House product. I encouraged them to amend it as lightly as possible. They went a little further than many of us would have preferred, but we have the product now,” Johnson said on Tuesday.
