CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview With Sen. Chris Murphy

Interview

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Joining me now to discuss is Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. He serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Senator, thanks for joining us.

You heard President Trump just a few minutes ago. He said the strike was carried out to stop a war, not to start one.

Your reaction.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Well, I worry that this is going to ultimately spill into a set of events in the region that will end up in a war between the United States and Iran.

The stated intention here was to prevent an attack on U.S. forces. First of all, none of us have seen that intelligence yet. But the question is, does this action actually make us safer? The fact that we're pulling all American civilians out of Iraq today tells us that that place is more dangerous today than it was just a day ago.

And what we also know is that Qasem Soleimani wasn't a lone wolf. He was carrying out the policy of Iran's supreme leader. And that policy remains. He was quickly replaced by his number two. And there is no doubt that there will ultimately be serious reprisals, maybe against U.S. forces, maybe against U.S. civilians, maybe even against top U.S. political and military leaders here at home.

This seems disproportionate to the threat. There's a reason why we didn't go after Soleimani under the Bush administration and the Obama administration, is because they came to the assessment that going after that high an Iranian official would end up getting more Americans killed in the long run.

TAPPER: Secretary of State Pompeo said that killing Soleimani disrupted this imminent attack, saved American lives in the region.

Do you dispute that?

MURPHY: Well, I haven't seen any of the intelligence.

Of course, the War Powers Act, which is the law of the United States, requires the president to consult with Congress before carrying out any military strikes overseas. The president is in violation of the War Powers Act. So none of us can sit here and opine as to whether this was necessary.

But what I know, as a watcher of Iran and of the Middle East, is that by taking out Soleimani, you are, frankly, creating a martyr that is going to inspire more attacks in the future.

And so, yes, maybe it had the effect in the short run of preventing this attack. Maybe there were other ways to prevent this attack through military action other than assassination.

In the long run, though, this ultimately may be more dangerous -- likely to be more dangerous for American interests.

TAPPER: Are you calling it an assassination? Because I believe that word carries with it the weight of legal theory that it was against the law?

[16:10:01]

MURPHY: It is an assassination.

I mean, this is a top official of a foreign government. This isn't the head of a non-state terrorist group. No matter how bad a guy he is, how evil he was, he was a commanding general of a sovereign foreign nation. And we executed him. So I don't think you can call it anything other than an assassination.

It's not the first time that America has been involved in assassinating a foreign official, but it's probably the most high- profile foreign official that the United States military has ever executed.

TAPPER: I want to ask you about a tweet you sent that some of your Republican colleagues are giving you grief for before the attack, in response to the president's response to the attacks on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

You tweeted: "The attack on our embassy in Baghdad is horrifying, but predictable. Trump has rendered America impotent in the Middle East. No one fears us. No one listens to us. America has been reduced to huddling in safe rooms, hoping the bad guys will go away. What a disgrace" -- unquote.

What do you say to critics who say, look, before the attack, you said the president is insufficiently projecting American strength; then he carries out the strike and you fault him for that?

MURPHY: Well, our policy in the Middle East has been embarrassment. It has made us weak.

The fact that none of our allies can trust us, that the president changes his mind every day on how many troops we're going to have in Syria, that he welshes on promises that America has made to countries in the region and throughout the world, all of our policy in the Middle East has made us weaker.

That doesn't justify the assassination of the leader of a foreign country that ultimately makes us less safe.

I may counsel my kids to stand up to bullies. That doesn't mean I'm suggesting that they kill the people that are threatening them.

In this case, it may be -- it is likely that the assassination of Qasem Soleimani ultimately will lead to war with Iran, it will make the United States less safe.

So, I have, of course, think that the president has taken grave missteps in the region, but this is -- this is likely an overcorrection for lots of mistakes that have mounted over the time he's been in office.

TAPPER: Just very quickly, if you could, do you think that the assassination, as you put it, of General Soleimani was against international law?

MURPHY: Interestingly, international law is pretty vague and often silent on the question of assassination of foreign leaders.

I likely think that this was done without domestic sanction of law. I'm not sure that, in the end, the administration is going to be able to make the claim that this was absolutely necessary and proportional to prevent an attack on U.S. forces. But I don't know whether it's in contravention of international law.

TAPPER: Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat from Connecticut, thank you for your time, sir. Appreciate it.

MURPHY: Thanks.

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