Dem Sen. Murphy on DOGE: ‘This Is the Most Serious Constitutional Crisis the Country Has Faced’ Since Watergate

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
RADDATZ: “And I’m joined now in studio by democratic senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut who has been outspoken this week, opposing the Trump Administration’s latest move. Good morning, senator.”

MURPHY: “Good morning.”

RADDATZ: “Good to have you here this morning. You have used incredibly strong language, a constitutional crisis, grossly unconstitutional. Pretty alarming language.”

MURPHY: “Yeah. Listen. I think this is the most serious constitutional crisis the country has faced, certainly since Watergate. The president is attempting to seize control of power, and for corrupt purposes. The president wants to be able to decide how and where money is spent so that he can reward his political friends. He can punish his political enemies. That is the evisceration of democracy. You stand that next to the wholesale endorsement of political violence with the pardons given to every single January 6th rioter including the most violent who beat police officers over the head with baseball bats, and you could see what he’s trying to do here. He is trying to crush his opposition by making them afraid of losing federal funding, by making them afraid of physical violence. So yes, this is a red alert moment when this entire country has to understand that our democracy is at risk, and for what? The billionaire takeover of government. I’m sure we’ll talk about this, but Elon Musk is inside our federal agencies. It’s alarming.”

RADDATZ: “They want to cut the federal budget. They would all disagree it’s corruption or anything else. They want to cut the federal budget, and the work force. Do you have issues with that?”

MURPHY: “Well, I don’t, but there’s no evidence that that is the goal. Ultimately at said, they sent a whole bunch of people home who are still getting paid, and I think you have to ask, why are they doing this if it’s not actually accruing any savings? And to me, again, the reason is that somebody like Elon Musk stands to gain from the closure of said. It makes America much less safe around the world, but it helps China. Usaid is a thorn in the side of the Chinese government. Elon Musk has many major business interests atbeijing, and so making Beijing happy is going to accrue to financial benefits.”