Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, confirmed Thursday that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke contacted her after her vote against a health care bill earlier this week. The conversation reportedly involved threats of administrative retribution against her home state.
A Murkowski spokesperson told Yahoo News that the moderate Alaska lawmaker received a call from Zinke on Wednesday, and he “told her that the president wasn’t pleased with the vote that she took.”
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But Zinke reportedly went beyond those sentiments, the Alaska Dispatch News
reported Thursday morning. Alaska’s other GOP senator, Dan Sullivan, told the Dispatch News that the interior secretary had “a troubling message” and that he threatened to curb department projects in Alaska over the matter.
“I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans. … We’re facing some difficult times and there’s a lot of enthusiasm for the policies that Secretary Zinke and the president have been talking about with regard to our economy. But the message was pretty clear,” Sullivan told Alaska’s biggest newspaper, saying both he and Murkowski were contacted.
