Thread by @jbendery

Just caught Lisa Murkowski's floor speech on why she sided with Democrats and helped narrowly confirm Vanita Gupta as asst AG.

Alaska tribes had a lot of sway in her decision.

Murkowski is looking out for Alaska Native women facing horrific levels of domestic violence.

Gupta will oversee DOJ's Office of Violence Against Women. She's been a leader on VAWA + has real experience addressing violence against women.

Murkowski said she talked to Gupta for a long time about justice and the "tragedy" that Native women face such high levels of violence.

Particularly in Alaska, Native women "experience rates of domestic violence and sexual assault that are shocking, disturbing and wrong," said Murkowski.

Despite all that's been done, "we have not been able to turn the corner" on stemming this "scourge."

(More than 80% of Native women experience domestic violence in their lifetimes, per DOJ.)

(More than 50% are sexually assaulted, per a 2016 DOJ study.)

"I felt I was speaking to a woman who had not only committed to a professional life to try to get to the basis of these injustices -- to try to not just direct a little bit of $, put a program in place & call it a day -- but to truly try to make a difference." -Murkowski on Gupta

Alaska tribes made a huge push for Gupta. I guess they didn't have as much sway w/ Dan Sullivan, who did not vote for her.

Here's a notable Anchorage Daily News op/ed in March, aligning tribal support for Gupta with their support for Deb Haaland. adn.com/opinions/2021/…

Honestly a little -- just a little -- surprised Dan Sullivan didn't support Gupta given how much Alaska tribes wanted her.

He listened to them on Deb Haaland and supported her. Not this time though.

Also, interestingly, Murkowski gave this Senate floor speech off the cuff.

She came to the floor to talk about national security and ended up talking about this for a bit instead. Tells you this was important to her to put this out there.