ANCHORAGE, Alaska _ Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski told reporters criticism levied at President Donald Trump by his former defense secretary is "true, honest, necessary and overdue" and said she is "struggling" with her support of the president, multiple news outlets reported Thursday.
On Thursday, the Republican senator was asked by reporters in Washington, D.C., whether she could support Trump in the future.
"I am struggling with it," Murkowski replied, The Washington Post and other outlets reported Thursday. "I have struggled with it for a long time."
She also said Trump was the "duly elected president" and that she'd continue to work with the administration, Reuters reported.
Murkowski told reporters that she agreed with the blistering assessment offered by Trump's former secretary of defense, Jim Mattis, in The Atlantic on Wednesday.
In the statement, Mattis denounced Trump, calling him a threat to the Constitution and saying he was trying to divide, rather than unite, the country.
Mattis also backed people protesting the death of George Floyd while in custody of Minneapolis police.
"I thought Gen. Mattis' words were true and honest and necessary and overdue," Murkowski said.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, both Murkowski and Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, called on Trump to drop out of the race after the release of a tape in which the GOP nominee boasted in vulgar language about forcing himself sexually on women. Both said they weren't voting for him at the time.
