CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Chris Murphy

Interview

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SCIUTTO: Well, we'll see if the president provides something to corroborate that claim. Joining me now from Washington to speak about this and other topics, Senator Chris Murphy. He's a Democrat from the state of Connecticut.

Senator, we appreciate you taking the time this morning.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Good morning.

SCIUTTO: First, I want to ask you, about a specific claim that the president made about a sitting congressman, Elijah Cummings. He said -- he seemed to say that Cummings is responsible for stealing billions of dollars in federal money. And the president has made unfounded allegations along those lines before about others.

But I wonder, how do you, as a sitting senator of the same party, react when the sitting president makes such a claim?

MURPHY: Well, I mean, the president lies every day. I mean, this is no different than yesterday or the day before or the day before that. This is who this president is. And that's the first time I've heard this particular lie about Elijah Cummings, but this is de rigueur for the chief executive. And I don't think we should normalize it. I think you've got to call him out every single time he says something that is deliberately untrue.

And, you know, our focus should be on trying to, you know, help places like Baltimore. Baltimore does have a lot of challenges. But the fact of the matter is, the president isn't pointing that out as a means to try to assist people in Baltimore, he's pointing that out as a means to try to win political points.

SCIUTTO: You announced that you had unfollowed the president on Twitter, specifically after the attacks on Elijah Cummings. And I wonder, when he makes comments like this, either on the White House lawn, as he has there, or in tweets, often politically motivated -- is it a mistake to repeat those attacks? I wonder. Is your argument, in effect, that silence with attacks like this, words from the president, is more effective than criticism?

MURPHY: Well, my decision was just personal. I mean, it just bums me out to start my day with all of this racist, hateful negativity from the president. I'll pick up on the truly important things that comes from the White House in other ways.

But, no, I don't think that you can ignore the president of the United States. And particularly when he is trying to divide us along racial lines, I don't think that we can be silent. Because I think silence, in some ways, risks implying endorsement.

So I don't think you can ignore him. I don't think that you can be silent in the face of these attacks. It's not the policy debate I want to be having, but if he's trying to split this country into two, I think we've got to stand up to that.

SCIUTTO: Fair point. You know, I was going to ask you about the shooting in Gilroy, California and the overall reaction to that. Of course, in the time since we were preparing for this interview, there's been another shooting, this one in Mississippi. Two people are dead, an officer wounded as well.

You've been very close to this issue, of course, because of your experience with one of the most heartbreaking shooting tragedies that -- in Newtown, Connecticut.

For our viewers who might be frustrated with progress on gun control in the wake of this spate -- continuing spate of gun violence like this, tell them, tell our viewers what has moved forward since Newtown, in recent years, on gun control or are we stuck in place? Are we moving backwards?

[10:35:12] MURPHY: Well, what has happened is that the modern anti- gun violence movement has come into being. And we now are more powerful than the NRA and the gun lobby. And you can see that in state legislatures.

Right after Newtown, state legislatures were predominantly passing laws to actually loosen gun restrictions. Today, we are passing more state laws that actually require laws to be tightened. At the federal level, we haven't had that breakthrough. But last election in 2018, 18 NRA A-rated incumbent Republicans lost their seats, all replaced by candidates who support universal background checks.

So we are making enormous progress. State laws are passing. And ultimately, I think 90 percent of Americans who want stronger gun laws, like universal background checks, are going to get their way. But it is a political process because the gun lobby was so strong in 2012, when Newtown happened.

SCIUTTO: Final question. As you know, the Supreme Court, next term, will consider extending the right to carry firearms in public nationally. And I wonder if you're concerned, given the conservative majority now on the Supreme Court, that the Supreme Court will derail or sideline or even prevent legislative measures like the ones you've mentioned here.

MURPHY: So I am. One of the reasons that I voted against Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court is that he very likely holds an absolutely radical view of the Second Amendment.

We can get into a long discussion about what the Second Amendment is really about, but there's no doubt in my mind that even if it does allow for the private right of gun ownership, it allows for Congress to regulate that right.

But Kavanaugh and Gorsuch and perhaps others, may interpret the Second Amendment, moving forward, as to allow zero regulation or restriction from Congress or state legislatures, allowing private citizens, even criminals, to obtain any kind of weapon that they want.

And that, I think, would be an abandonment of the founding fathers' understanding of government intervention on the question of Second Amendment rights, but it would also make our country an even more dangerous place than it is today. I am very worried about the future of Second Amendment jurisprudence.

SCIUTTO: Yes. You look at the weapon used in Gilroy, it was an AK- 47, semi-automatic. Only place I've seen those is in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Senator Chris Murphy --

MURPHY: That's right.

SCIUTTO: -- thanks very much.

MURPHY: Thanks.

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