By SUZANNE DOWNING
Sept. 25, 2026 – Sen. Lisa Murkowski came to Mary Peltola’s defense Thursday after a New York Times investigation described an unhinged Peltola, prone to angry outbursts, slurs, physical violence against staffers, and turmoil among staff in the former congresswoman’s office and Senate campaign.
Asked by CNN whether the report accurately portrayed Peltola, Murkowski said, “I think there are many parts of it that I find inflammatory.” She pointed to the pressure Peltola faced after winning a 2022 special election, then losing her husband in a 2023 plane crash while serving her first term in Congress.
Murkowski did not mention that Sen. Dan Sullivan also lost his parents recently, in 2019 and 2020 and that his wife Julie lost her parents during the same period, in 2020 and 2021.
“That’s pressure that is hard for anybody to bear,” Murkowski told CNN about Peltola, completely ignoring what the Sullivans had gone through.
The defense is politically striking. Murkowski is tepidly supporting her Republican Senate colleague Sullivan, in his race against Peltola. But she and Peltola are longtime friends, and in 2022 Murkowski endorsed the raging Democrat for Alaska’s US House seat over Republican challengers Sarah Palin and Nick Begich. Peltola supported Murkowski in her Senate reelection campaign that year. Murkowski also backed Peltola’s 2024 House bid for reelection, which Peltola lost to Nick Begich.
This year Murkowski has chosen Sullivan, but has not defended him against the barrage of attacks he has endured from the Peltola campaign.
As for Sullivan, he called the reported conduct of Peltola “very disturbing” and a “character issue.”
The Times report drew on interviews with former aides and text messages. Among its allegations were profane blowups, the use of slurs and an incident in which Peltola allegedly shoved a staffer over a missing memo. It also described aides being asked to feed live crickets to Peltola’s pet chameleon.
Democrats have excused Peltola’s behavior as a response to grief.
Murkowski did not say the allegations were false. Her response was a defense of Peltola’s circumstances and a criticism of parts of the report’s portrayal.
26 thoughts on “Murkowski defends Mean Mary: Abuse is OK if you are grieving”
> Abuse is OK if you are grieving
Not surprising for the modern feminist. Male failure is moralized: grow up, work harder, stop watching porn, control your anger, earn more, become useful. Female failure is often therapeuticized: understand your trauma, honor your emotions, enforce your boundaries, protect your peace, consider how the system failed you. One sex is routinely told that maturity means mastering oneself; the other is increasingly encouraged to understand and love itself as is with no accountability or moral framework.
Correct. Women should not have the right to vote. Only land owning biological males.
….and there you have it!
Tim wants women to return to the “barefoot and pregnant” state while also bringing back the feudal system, where the lord of the manor had all the power and everyone else better towed the line…..wow!
What ever happened to all men being created equal Tim???
Modern feminism is in search of a purpose, hence they protect men pretending to be women etc. Ironically feminists revert to the “you are only your feelings and need protection” stance, they railed against all these years ago! Go figure!
We need to hear from poster “house husband” about abuse suffered from the murky one!
KenaiMike,
See comment below. I don’t dare step out of line with Lisa. She can abuse me all she wants. She brings home all the bacon and her upcoming pension will be huge, thanks to the dumb voters in Alaska. Moreover, Frankie has double pension from the State of Alaska and from the US government while as a US Senator. And the secret bank money stash from decades ago is still safe in Murkowski hands. All taken from Alaskans who unwittingly thought that the Murkowskis were straight up legends in the making. Inheritance is going to be huge, my friend. You think I’m going to jeopardize free $$$ in huge paying quantities by smacking Lisa around? She can continue to smack me all she wants.
She isn’t worth leaving until I get my share of the dumb Alaska voter’s spoils.
For now, I can afford to live unabashedly with bruises and shame. I will never go back to working my noodle stand.
Hey Vernie, what you gonna do when JKT comes dressed in a skirt to your next party?
Is Frankie’s money worth all that?
Huge LOL.🤣🤣
One thing we know for sure, Vern isn’t eating noodles with Lisa anymore.
So by US Senator Murkowski’s acceptance standard “she thinks a divorcee is okay to verbally, emotionally, and mentally abuse and neglect their child(ren) in the wake of a divorce because the divorcee is grieving by the loss of a marriage”
So when is Abuse not okay? @US Sen Murkowski?
So it is wrong for a female politician to be abusive, but it OK when a politician such as Trump is verbally abusive to hundred of people? Give me a break! Be consistent!
Alaska men and women try telling an Alaska police officer that reason on call to your house for a DV disturbance call only to find a bruised husband and and wife “I’m abusing my partner because my relative just died, and US Senator Murkowski just permitted abuse is okay in the wake of grief, I’m grieving” the police officer won’t have it,
Embracing emotional incontinence
So, according to Lisa, acting like a female dog, and calling other women female dogs is ok “if” one is grieving. Got it.
I miss the days, those before commie political correctness, when we could call a bitch a bitch, whether human or canine.
Don’t cancel my comment, I’m grieving.
I mean this from the bottom of my heart: Just feed the chameleon.
I wonder why the good Senator didn’t defend the actions of Jay Allen Johnson or Charles Graham, maybe they were suffering from grief also. Jay Allen Johnson was sentenced to 32 months in prison and a $5,000 fine after pleading guilty to two counts of threatening to murder Alaska’s two U.S. Senators. Charles Graham pleaded guilty to making interstate threats to kidnap and injure a sitting U.S. Senator.
A lot of people say and do stupid things, grief doesn’t excuse their behavior.
Interesting! I met Mary coming out of Fred Meyers in Anchorage a couple years ago and she was in great spirits. This was just a few weeks after Gene’s plane crash. She just sort of shrugged it off and said, “well, that’s life.” Didn’t seem to phase her at all. And she had two younger men (congressional aides, I presume) carefully tending to her. She sure didn’t seem like a grieving widow to me. I got the impression that she was already planning to play the field of men in Washington, DC. She is a very cagey woman with deliberate coyness and apparent deceipt.
Lisa told me that if Mary hit up on me, I could go for it. We’ve had an open marriage for decades. so this isn’t a big deal. Lisa has totally bought into the Democrat’s values, which includes lots of LGBTQ activities. So I told Lisa she could also go for it with Mary. And you know, I think she did. I don’t find Mary very appealing, on any level. I have a more discriminating taste on what I think is pleasing to the eyes.
I have my doubts that grieving led Mary to wish someone would die from a botched abortion. Seems to me that if she can miss one quarter of the votes on the House floor because she had to go fishing, it would have been okay for her to take a couple weeks off to grieve without damaging her mediocre effectiveness. I think it’s pretty clear that she is just as toxic to her employees as Kamala or Sheila Jackson-Lee. Queen Mary might be fine on a fishing boat, but she sure isn’t ready for prime time.
Trump’s poor personal behavior has been explained away, ignored, or justified by Republicans for years (he’s a fighter!). Now y’all are worked up about Peltola’s behavior? And I am not excusing Peltola’s behavior by any means. I’d just like to see a little bit of intellectual honesty and consistency from Trumpers. Probably a big ask…
You are absolutely correct. Many experienced, solid,ethical people left comfortable senior level positions to serve in Trump 45. Senator Sessions, whose conservative credentials were impeccable, resigned a safe Senate seat to become AG but would not tolerate Trump’s expectations for what an AG should be. Others resolved never to return to the Trump WH after the January 6th shenanigans.. The country rightfully expects ethical and stable leadership. In the Senate and the White House. Abusive conduct is not to be dismissed. Whether by Trump, Franken or Peltola. Full stop.
The difference is that Trump has never hidden who or what he is, unlike Hilly, Kamala and now Peltola, With Trump, what you see is what you get, a brash New Yorker, which to some is an acquired taste. The three democrat women all pretend to be something they aren’t, which means they are lying every second of every hour of every day. Simple. Cheers –
Even if “what you see is what you get” were true (and paying off a porn star to bury an affair suggests otherwise) that still wouldn’t excuse the behavior. Being unashamed about something isn’t the same as being honest about it. Does the fact that his corruption happens out in the open somehow make it OK? By that logic, brazenness is a virtue, irrespective of the outcome.
Lisa and Mary……..the oosik sisters.
I feel so sorry for the oosik.
[…] Murkowski defends Mean Mary: Abuse is OK if you are grieving […]
Lisa Murkowski needs the native vote.
Every Republican needs to answer for Trump before they say anything. If they have not spoken out against trump and his corruption, lies, and cruelty, then I do not want to hear a peep out of them. Once they have taken that step we can start the conversation about Rep Peltola’s lapses. Until then, make sure your own house in in order before you say anything about her.