GEOFF BENNETT: Senator Lisa Murkowski, the independent-minded Republican from Alaska, often defied President Trump during his first term, breaking with him on key issues and nominations.

She's now opening up in a candid memoir called "Far From Home," which she discussed recently with our Amna Nawaz.

AMNA NAWAZ: Senator Murkowski, welcome to the "News Hour."

Thanks for joining us.

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): Great to be with you, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: So the why behind someone writing a book always fascinates me.

And in the very first pages, you really make it clear.

You say: "My hope is, when you learn my story, my struggles and my fears, you will realize that you can do this too.

We need you.

Only good people can get our government back on track."

Why is it that you think good people, as you put it right now, don't necessarily want your job or want to join government?

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: I think, first of all, people think it's too hard.

In order to be in elected office, I have to have some kind of a resume, right?

I have got to have built my way up in order to get to this position.

And I don't have that.

Or perhaps they look at how you get there.

Quite honestly, in order to run a Senate it's expensive.

I don't want to deal with the fund-raising.

I don't think that I can and I don't have personal means to do it.

And so that's a disqualifier.

But I think even more important is the sense that it's just -- it's just such an awful environment right now.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: Is this fun?

Is this rewarding when it seems like everyone is just bickering?

And we can't let those barriers get in the way of good people stepping forward to serve at any level.

We have got to keep reinforcing that it is average people that are willing to make a commitment to service that do extraordinary things.

AMNA NAWAZ: You have been asked this repeatedly, but I have to ask, because people say this could be a pivot point, a launching pad for something else.

And you said: I do not want to be president.

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: Oh, yes, that's for sure.

AMNA NAWAZ: Why don't you want to be president?

What do you think you couldn't do about that job or don't want to do?

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: It's no accident that my book is named "Far From Home," because when I'm here in Washington, D.C., I feel not only physically far from home, but just kind of I'm away from who I am, my identity, my roots.

And, quite honestly, in order to be president of the United States you need to love all parts of our country equally.

I love my country.

I am an American I am a patriot, but I really love Alaska.

And I don't know how I could be president and not give them preferential treatment.

(LAUGHTER) SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: So I just have to be up front with it, yes,.

AMNA NAWAZ: Your very own assessment of our current president, of President Trump, is pretty blunt in the book.

You write -- quote -- in your dealings with him, that it was evident he could not have planned his own rise or engineered the transformation of this Supreme Court.

You write: "He isn't that smart.

Trump lacks the ability for strategic or linear thinking.

He isn't able to form or follow through on complex plans."

That's an incredibly worrying description of the man who's leading this nation right now.

I mean, do you trust him to make strategically sound decisions?

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: So keep in mind that when I wrote that we were in the first Trump administration.

The idea of a second round for President Trump was not even being discussed at that point in time.

And I think there's a very different Donald Trump between the first administration and the second administration.

AMNA NAWAZ: How so?

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: In terms of his understanding of the operations of government, the role of Congress, the power of the executive, the check of the judiciary.

And I think what you have seen that is different this time around is, there is a lot more understanding of not only the process, but there is a planning that has gone forward.

And I think... AMNA NAWAZ: Do you feel he's more effective this time around?

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: I think he absolutely has the potential to be far more effective, because he knows where he wasn't able to be successful.

He now has a clearer picture of it and a four-year road map in front of him.

AMNA NAWAZ: There's a theme in your book you return to again and again about finding yourself in the middle on issues often.

And you write very strongly about the populists, as you describe them, in your party.

You call their ideas empty calories.

You write: "As the populists have gained power, they haven't succeeded in governing.

They have slogans, but slogans are not solutions."

I mean, you look back, arguably, it's the populists who really propelled Mr. Trump back into office.

And he now has a firm hold on the party.

So is that populism now just a defining feature of the Republican Party?

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: It is certainly a more dominant feature of the Republican Party.

I don't know that I want to say it's a defining feature.

And as I say that, I have had so many conversations with people about, well, what is the Republican Party nowadays?

Is it MAGA, the more kind of conservative, more pragmatic?

Is it -- do the moderates have a place in the party anymore?

AMNA NAWAZ: Do they?

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: Is there such a thing as a Ronald Reagan, a Republican still alive and affiliated with the Republican Party anymore?

I think the answer to that is, it's just kind of a swirl right now.

AMNA NAWAZ: And what does that mean for life after Trump?

Where does the party go?

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: Well, it depends.

It depends, because, when you have a movement, I will just say a movement, that is really reliant on one person, on that leader, to define them, because I think that MAGA movement is very much in alignment with President Trump.

And so I think you're seeing some discussion about, well, who will carry that flag?

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: Is it J.D.

Vance?

Does he personify that MAGA movement that is that Trump movement?

AMNA NAWAZ: Do you believe he does?

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: I don't know that he has that -- what is it?

It's not gravitas.

It's not charisma.

It's a magnetism.

It's a magnetism that President Trump has with so many of his followers.

Now, J.D.

Vance, I think he's doing a good job as vice president.

He's got a strong core constituency as well.

What I don't know is, is it separate from Trump or is it part of Trump?

I don't know.

AMNA NAWAZ: Your comments in April got a lot of attention when you talked about acknowledging, as you said, the fear in the room in the community about funding cuts coming to Alaska.

You said: "We are all afraid."

And then you went on to say: "I'm oftentimes very anxious myself about it, about using my voice, because retaliation is real."

Has that fear of retaliation kept you from saying something that you felt needed to be said in this administration, more so this time around than the last?

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: As an elected leader, I know my words matter.

I don't call people names.

Some of the passages that you have read there about my words towards Donald Trump were -- they were critical.

But I try not to say, you're a loser.

Or I want to make sure that there is a basis for the criticism that I have given, other than just the fact that, well, I didn't vote for you, and so, therefore, I'm going to throw rocks.

That's not who I am.

AMNA NAWAZ: You have had the backing of your husband your two sons, every time that you have wanted to run again.

And you have said that you're going to evaluate in another two years, you said, whether or not you do so again.

What are you looking to answer in those two years before you know?

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: You know, you have value to the people that you're serving.

If you still feel that the work that I am doing on their behalf works for them, that is important to me.

And so if people feel that my brand of politics, which is being more in the center, trying to be more collaborative, bringing people together to build things, rather than lining up on party lines, so that we can have our reconciliation votes where we just get the bare majority -- and it may be that Alaskans say in two years, nope, that's what we want.

We want somebody that is more clearly defined along those party lines.

And if that's what -- the value that they're seeking, then I have to take that into account.

AMNA NAWAZ: The book is "Far From Home."

The author is Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski.

Senator, thank you so much for your time.

Really a pleasure to speak with you.

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: Thank you.

Good to be with you.

Come to Alaska.