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

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

TAPPER: I want to bring in Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. He is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senator, first off, let me just ask you. Soleimani was a horrible person. He had the blood of innocent people throughout the Middle East and American soldiers on his hands.

Is it not a good thing that this person who was, you know, heralded even by his enemies as a brilliant tactician and strategist, isn't that a good thing that he cannot -- he's not around anymore to wreak this violence and vengeance?

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): It is, but our responsibility here is not to view the killing of Soleimani in isolation. We have to look at the consequences of that assassination.

And I just spent some time on the phone with the Iraqi ambassador to the United States who described to me what seems to be a process being set in place to expel all American Forces from Iraq that is going to embolden ISIS and weaken US National Security.

And so the reason why Bush and Obama did not take out Soleimani when they had a chance was not because they thought that the world would be better off with Soleimani alive. It was because they knew what would happen afterwards.

And so we're charged with looking at the big picture. That's in fact why the Constitution says Congress has to make these decisions and not one person, not the executive branch alone.

TAPPER: Okay, but the CIA Director, Gina Haspel, you know, Mark Esper told me and confirmed for me essentially the "New York Times" report that Gina Haspel said, actually, if you do a balance sheet on whether the world is more dangerous with him in it, continuing to wreak havoc and kill innocent people including U.S. troops or take him out and risk whatever repercussions there might be, risk whatever response Iran makes, she said, at the end of the day, safer and better to take him out.

Does, I mean, did you not vote for her? I mean, does her judgment not good?

MURPHY: Well, let's just take a secondary at Pompeo's new rationale, and this is a rationale of the entire administration is using, that one of the purposes of the strike was to restore deterrence. Well, in fact, it didn't restore deterrence because the Iranians

launched a strike against U.S. assets in Iraq which luckily killed no one, but our Department of Defense says it was intended to kill dozens, if not hundreds of Americans.

That means that we actually didn't restore deterrence. We set into motion a series of events that almost got perhaps 100 Americans killed. So, I just don't see the rationale for this.

I don't see our interests being stronger in Iraq. I don't see deterrence being restored and I don't see the rule of law in the United States being upheld, and I think there is a lot of folks here in Congress and across the country that share that views.

TAPPER: President Trump said that the possible plot on four U.S. embassies was a justification to take out Soleimani. He revealed this after a full week of questions. When you went to the congressional briefing, did you hear anything about a threat to four U.S. embassies?

MURPHY: No. The administration said nothing about a threat to embassies and they were being pressed at the end of that briefing to give intelligence that would back up this claim of an imminent threat because they were refusing to do so.

They had that intelligence and it was at their fingertips such that the president could share it with Fox News several days later, they would have shared it with us.

I don't think the President is telling the truth about the threat to the embassies and that is backed up with the way -- by the way in which Secretary Pompeo has fudged his responses to similar questions and I think that Secretary Esper's very candid admission this weekend that he never saw that intel.

TAPPER: Quickly if you could, Congressman Adam Kinzinger joined me last hour. He said that the intelligence briefing he received did mention dates. It wasn't specifics in threats, but it did mention dates, did you hear dates mentioned?

MURPHY: I would be curious if they mentioned dates in the House briefing. They did not in the Senate briefing and in fact, Secretary Pompeo days later said that there was no intelligence about a specific attack or specific dates or specific targets. And so the administration has publicly stated that they don't have information on dates or targets.

TAPPER: I want to get your reaction to that image that President Trump re-tweeted of Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer in the traditional Muslim garb. What did you make of that?

MURPHY: It's disgusting, but is not unsurprising. This president got elected to office by trying to convince all Americans that they should fear Muslims both domestically and abroad.

And by posting those images it just, you know, not only degrades our domestic debate, but it also becomes bulletin board material for terrorist recruiters. I mean, they thrive on this idea that the president of the United States is out to get all Muslims across the world.

[17:19:58]

And so every time he posts one of those things, maybe, you know, he and his sycophants have a good laugh, but ultimately it endangers American national security because it ends up in more people being recruited by groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda.

TAPPER: Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, thank you so much sir. Appreciate your time.

MURPHY: Thanks.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source