Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Democrats must make the destruction of democracy the number one issue in fighting President Donald Trump. In an interview with MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, Murphy said Trump is trying to “cripple” political opposition from being able to campaign against him. “I believe that there’s no guarantee that we are going to have a free and fair election in 2026,” Murphy told Wallace. “I think he’s trying to rig our democracy, to destroy dissent, to cripple the political opposition so that even if his approval ratings are in the 30s in the fall of next year, there isn’t the ability for his opposition to muster a real campaign. So I think we’ve got to act with tremendous urgency and we have to make the corruption and the destruction of democracy the number one issue.”

NICOLLE WALLACE, MSNBC: I mean, your point about the country being exposed to threats foreign and domestic is something that you hear privately from former national security officials all the time, that there’s never been a moment since the years leading up to September 11th when the country was more vulnerable. Is there, I mean, is the Congress so broken on the Republican side that nobody gives a hoot? SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Yeah, I mean, what Trump did in his first term is what he’s doing in his second term. He’s taking military assets and he’s stealing them from the defense of this nation and putting them in service of his attempts to shut down the border illegally, right? Illegally. It’s important. I mean, people, when they come to this country under the statutes are allowed to claim asylum if they’re fleeing terror or torture, and they’re not allowed to do that any longer because there’s not just border agents there. There’s lots of military members who frankly should be out fighting terrorist groups that exist in all parts of the world. It’s not just MS-13 that presents a threat to the United States. I just don’t know that our Republican colleagues will ever break. This is a cult. It operates like a cult. And for the time being, if Donald Trump says black is white or one plus one equals five, the Republican Party is going to agree with him. WALLACE: And I guess at some point, if the Democrats take over the majorities in the House and the Senate, it won’t matter. But I wonder if you feel like we have enough time. You look at the grift, you look at the corruption, you look at the pay to play going on. It’s staggering and it’s all out in the open. It’s almost as if to say, you know, when you’re president, you can do it. MURPHY: Yeah, I mean, this is the conversation we’re having right now inside the Democratic Party. How urgent is the moment? You know what I believe, Nicole. I believe that there’s no guarantee that we are going to have a free and fair election in 2026. I think he’s trying to rig our democracy, to destroy dissent, to cripple the political opposition so that even if his approval ratings are in the 30s in the fall of next year, there isn’t the ability for his opposition to muster a real campaign. So I think we’ve got to act with tremendous urgency and we have to make the corruption and the destruction of democracy the number one issue. So we’ve got this crypto regulation bill pending before Congress. The only way we should pass that bill, the only way that we should move that bill forward is if it unwinds Trump’s crypto corruption. That would be an example of Democrats saying, you know what, we’re not going to pretend that this is business as usual, unless you are helping us stop Trump’s corruption and his attempt to destroy democracy, then we’re not moving legislation forward. That’s the main thing. That’s the problem that we should be solving for. And that’s a fight that we’re going to continue to have, a discussion we’re going to continue to have.

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