NPR’s Juana Summers talks with Senator Lisa Murkowski of R-Alaska about her new memoirs, who talks about the places she is occupying at the party.
Ali Shapiro, host:
The past 24 hours have led to mixed reactions to the US strike at Iran’s nuclear facility. Even Democrats and some Republicans have accused the attack of unconstitutionality. They criticized President Trump for moving without Congressional permission. One Republican senator who supports the targeted strike lawsuit is Sen. Lisa Markowski of Alaska. She has a reputation for overthrowing her party and President Trump on other issues. She has a new memoir about the places she occupys the party. Cohost Juana Summers spoke with Murkovsky this morning just before Iran attacked Qatar’s major US bases. And Markowski said the next 48-72 hours are important.
Juana Summers, host:
Welcome, Senator Lisa Murkowski.
Lisa Murkowski: Thank you. It’s good to be with you.
Summer: I just want to start by asking you what your reaction to the strike.
Murkowski: Well, I think President Trump has made it very clear that his desire is to negotiate with Iran and drive Iran from the capabilities of nuclear weapons. This is not something that President Trump wants. No one in the world wants Iran, except perhaps, to have nuclear weapons. And I think it was important to make efforts towards some form of negotiated settlement.
I think President Trump has noticed at one point that Iran has not taken this seriously. And he moved towards a very decisive action, towards these three sites to take away Iran’s nuclear capabilities. I don’t think we’ve seen the extent to which everything was destroyed. But everything fresh from the news this weekend, I think we’re all a bit uneasy.
Summers: As you write in your memoirs, you have a legal background, and some of your colleagues on Capitol Hill challenge the constitutionality of these strikes, claiming that they were implemented without the permission of Congress. What do you say to them?
Murkowski: So, if the president moves towards an attack, the War Power Act is specific regarding Congressional involvement. But it gives him the authority, as commander, to carry out targeted strikes in the event of an emergency or threatening event. Our role in Parliament under the War Powers Act is within a limited period of time – sorry, here is only a moment – that we will be notified within 48 hours of such an attack. And the council has a 60-day period. It is the president, and it is the prime minister’s commander who will move to implement it.
I plan to discuss this week on the Senate floor. Senator Tim Kane introduced a resolution on military strength. Before we proceed with that, we have the opportunity to brief all members, a categorized briefing to explain more details about the decision-making process. And I think it’s useful as we move forward in this next process and move forward on potential votes on the War Power Act.
Summers: Vice President J.D. Vice President Vance said this is a war for the United States with Iran or its citizens, not just a war on the nuclear program. But how worried are we that this move could put American citizens at risk, in our community, or even here, at home?
Murkowski: Well, I think we’re all worried, right? This is not only security for Americans, but also for friends from Israel, friends and allies. And when you have a directed target attack that has robbed the nuclear capabilities of the country that we have pushed for a halt for the last few years, you need to worry about retaliation. What does this look like? How will it affect us and the threats there? And when we look at how Iran reacts, we see these next 48, 72 hours periods as very, very important, so I think we’ve already been told from a few things in the last few hours.
Should I worry? Yes, but I think it’s important to put it in context. Iran has long been threatening with their continued efforts to their own nuclear capabilities. In itself, it is a threat that we all need to worry about. But it’s really true – the president said, it’s really in the hands of Iran. The road to negotiation is still very, very open.
Shapiro: And tomorrow we can hear more Juana’s conversations with Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski about her new memoir, “Hous from Home.”
Copyright©2025 NPR. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. For more information, please see the www.npr.org website Terms of Use and Permissions page.
The accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. You can modify the transcript text to fix the errors and match the update to the audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after the original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR programming is audio records.
