CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Sen. Chris Murphy
Interview
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And let's talk about all of this with Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. He's a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.
Senator, thanks so much for joining us.
And let me get your reaction to all the news that's unfolding.
The defense secretary, as you know, he says it was only a matter of days, days, before Soleimani was going to carry out what the president insists would have been a very big attack against Americans. Have you seen any intelligence to support that claim?
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): None.
I know that the eight leaders were briefed today. But it is very regular to be five days after a massive U.S. military attack on a foreign government, and to not have that information shared with members of Congress. There's no reason why members of Congress and the American public should be in the dark for this long.
And, of course, the administration's burden here, Wolf, as you know, is not just to produce evidence of the imminence of this attack, but also to explain why this level of provocative nonstrategic escalation was necessary.
There are all sorts of ways that the U.S. military games out protecting our assets from possible attack. You harden your defenses. You go after the other country or other group's military assets that are going to be used in that attack.
But executing the second most powerful person in Iran, they knew, was going to unleash a fury of downside consequences to the United States that we're seeing today.
I also think that Mark Esper -- Secretary Esper has to decide. At one point, they're saying that this attack was necessary in order to prevent future attacks against the United States. And, today, Esper is saying that they actually anticipate new attacks being launched against the United States, attacks that might be happening as we speak.
So I just think the administration is just sending confusing signals left and right. We're all looking forward to this briefing tomorrow.
BLITZER: I know you have seen some of the intelligence that's been made available to members of Congress, but you're going to be formally briefed by Trump administration officials tomorrow.
Give us the most important specific question you want answered.
MURPHY: Well, I want to understand why they felt that assassinating Qasem Soleimani was the necessary step and whether they had gamed out all of the disastrous consequences that have already accrued to the United States.
Now, setting aside the inevitable military reprisal from Iran, we have already had Iraq order all of our troops out of the country, or at least take initial steps to do so. We have had Iran restart their nuclear weapons program. We have had NATO suspend their anti-ISIS mission.
We have had the United States government suspend its anti-ISIS mission. That is a set of disastrous consequences for U.S. national security. And so they need to explain to us, first and foremost, whether they had anticipated those consequences, and what they are going to do to stop this from descending into a march towards war with Iran.
BLITZER: The Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, says the U.S. is not looking to start a war with Iran, but, in his words, is prepared to finish one.
The Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, told our friend Fred Pleitgen in Tehran today that Iran will respond to what it perceives and what is calling state terrorism on the part of the president of the United States.
How do you de-escalate all of this and avoid a war?
MURPHY: Well, first of all, let's take on this notion of finishing a war with Iran, right? The reason that we're in this mess today is because we still have 5,000 troops in Iraq who haven't been able to finish a war with Iraq, in Iraq, that started in 2003.
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And so the idea that anybody in the Department of Defense thinks that you could finish a war with Iran, a place that's twice as big as Iraq, where a counterinsurgency will exist forever, just denies the basic reality of the Middle East.
Listen, there's got to be a diplomatic path at some point here. There's got to be an off-ramp that the United States offers Iran. And, right now, that simply doesn't exist. There's no high-level communication between the two sides. And if that doesn't occur very soon, then this very well may lead to a conventional war or a war involving other allies in the region like Israel that will be potentially catastrophic.
BLITZER: On Saturday, you tweeted this. And I will put it up on the screen.
You said this: "The moment we all feared is likely upon us, an unstable president in way over his head panicking, with all his experienced advisers having quit, and only the sycophantic amateurs remaining, assassinating foreign leaders, announcing plans to bomb civilians, a nightmare."
Now, the former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, was on FOX last night. And she said this. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: You don't see anyone standing up for Iran.
You're not hearing any of the Gulf members. You're not hearing China. You're not hearing Russia. The only ones that are mourning the loss of Soleimani are our Democrat leadership and our Democrat presidential candidates.
(LAUGHTER)
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: That is sad.
HALEY: No one else in the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: What's your reaction?
MURPHY: No, that's absolutely ridiculous. And it's unfortunate that Governor Haley would choose to use those kind of words.
But here's the reality. I absolutely believe that it should be a U.S. priority to disable and weaken Iran. But everything this administration has done has accrued to the exact opposite result. Iran is more powerful in the region than when Donald Trump became president. They are closer to getting a nuclear weapon than when Donald Trump became president.
When Donald Trump took the oath of office, they were not firing rockets at U.S. personnel in the region. Now they are. Iran is more powerful today than when Donald Trump took office.
And the reason that I'm so critical of this president, the reason I'm so worried about letting him continue down this policy and path towards war is because everything he has done has made Iran more menacing in the region. And that's the reality.
BLITZER: Senator Chris Murphy, thanks so much for joining us.
MURPHY: Thank you.
BLITZER: All right, just ahead, we're going to more on the closed- door Iran intelligence briefing that just ended for key U.S. lawmakers.
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