GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski: Trump 'incited violence' and House responded 'appropriately' with impeachment

As all eyes turn to how Senate Republicans will vote in a second impeachment trial for President Trump, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) says the president's "unlawful actions cannot go without consequence."

Murkowski released a statement Thursday after the House passed an article of impeachment charging Trump with inciting an insurrection at the Capitol building. While the Alaska senator didn't announce how she'll vote, she made clear she feels the House was right to make Trump the only president in American history to be impeached twice.

"On the day of the riots, President Trump's words incited violence, which led to the injury and deaths of Americans — including a Capitol Police officer — the desecration of the Capitol, and briefly interfered with the government's ability to ensure a peaceful transfer of power," she said. "Such unlawful actions cannot go without consequence and the House has responded swiftly, and I believe, appropriately, with impeachment."

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Murkowski, who voted to acquit Trump in his previous impeachment trial, went on to describe the Senate's power of trying impeachments as a "weighty and important responsibility," vowing to "listen carefully and consider the arguments of both sides" before announcing how she'll vote. Pundits have listed her as among the Republican senators to watch ahead of Trump's second impeachment trial, and she previously called on the president to resign following the Capitol riot.

"He only wants to stay there for his ego," Murkowski told the Anchorage Daily News last week. "He needs to get out. He needs to do the good thing, but I don't think he's capable of doing a good thing."

A Senate impeachment trial of Trump could potentially begin on the same day President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated. The president was acquitted in his first impeachment trial in 2020 with only one Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), voting to convict him.