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

Interview

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Joining me now is Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

Senator, thanks so much for joining.

So, you voted against advancing the stimulus bill. You have done this twice now. Your fellow Democrat Doug Jones from Alabama, he voted to advance it. He voted the opposite way. He told CNN he's embarrassed by the political games that both sides are playing.

What's your response to your fellow Democrat?

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Well, right now, the McConnell bill just doesn't solve the problem. And, ultimately, we need a bill that is going to stop this virus in its tracks. We don't need a bill that is going to provide no-strings-attached bailouts to corporations, who are just going to take the money and lay off their workers anyway.

This is $2 trillion, Jake. This is 10 percent of the total GDP of the country. We should spend it right. And we should make sure that it actually gets relief to hospitals and nursing homes and states that are on the front lines.

So, we don't have a bill right now that actually solves the problem, which is a public health crisis that's creating an economic crisis. And so we should spend the next couple hours making sure that we get it right, not pass a bill that pads the pockets of corporations, and doesn't actually addressed the public health crisis.

TAPPER: Well, look, I certainly understand Democrats wanting to make sure that any company getting billions from the federal government or millions from the federal government, that they -- that those companies have to keep workers on board as much as humanly possible.

But I guess the question I have is, you describe it as a bailout. A bailout is when an industry screws up, makes mistakes, does things wrong, and needs rescuing. These corporations, whatever you think of them, they're responding to a pandemic. They haven't done anything wrong.

MURPHY: Well, in the case of the airline industry, for the last 20 years, they were using all their available cash in order to pad investor and CEO salaries, instead of building a rainy day fund.

And so we got to make sure that they don't take this money and use it to further pad CEO salaries and investor paychecks. That would be a dereliction of duty.

But the problem is not just on the business side of the ledger here. The problem also is that this bill doesn't actually have enough funding to stop the virus. And my worry is that Republicans see this as an economic problem, not as a public health problem.

There's no amount of stimulus that you can give to families or businesses that will get the job done if you don't stop the virus. And this bill just shortchanges states and municipalities and hospitals and doesn't address the public health crisis.

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We need to get that right, first and foremost.

TAPPER: Mitch McConnell says Democrats are making 11th-hour demands, including a tax credit for solar panels, collective bargaining rights, and that's what's some of the sticking points.

Why would Democrats be pushing a tax credit for solar panels or collective bargaining rights?

MURPHY: So, listen, my focus is on making sure that hospitals and states have what they need, that we don't do any of these no-strings- attached bailouts. That's where my focus is.

And if that -- if those demands are met, then I will vote to proceed on this legislation.

TAPPER: I want you to take a listen to what Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told Wolf Blitzer just a few days ago, just on Saturday.

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SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Actually, to my delight and surprise, there has been a great deal of bipartisan cooperation thus far.

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TAPPER: A great deal of bipartisan cooperation thus far from your leader, Chuck Schumer.

Now Democrats are saying the opposite, no bipartisan cooperation.

MURPHY: So, what happened here is that Republicans wrote their own bill. Then they brought Democrats into the room. And there were good- faith negotiations that were occurring for about a half-a-day.

Senator Schumer remarked on those negotiations. And then, late on Saturday night, Democrats were kicked out of the room, and Republicans wrote the bill on their own. We only got a copy of it Sunday morning from lobbyists on K Street. It was shared with corporate lobbyists before it was shared with members of the Democratic Caucus.

And that, to us, was a sign that the priority here was in helping corporations, not helping workers and solving the virus.

So, there was a brief period of time where Democrats and Republicans were in the room working together. And now we are doing that again. So, we're working, Republicans and Democrats, to try to bridge the differences that exist here. I think we can do that.

And I think that we can probably do that by the end of the day.

TAPPER: Would you agree -- I mean, you kind of skirted the question, but would you agree that matters like solar panel tax credits and collective bargaining rights, while I understand are important to Democrats, like, it's not worth holding up this bill?

MURPHY: So, I don't know where those reports come from.

I have told you what my priorities are. My priorities are making sure that my taxpayer dollars aren't going to go pad CEO salaries and that the public health crisis is identified. Those are my priorities. I don't know about that reporting.

TAPPER: Tell us about the legislation you're introducing that would force President Trump to federalize the medical supply chain in the U.S. and also to use his powers under the Defense Production Act.

MURPHY: So, right now, we have a "Lord of the Flies" situation happening with the medical supply chain.

We don't have enough personal protective equipment and ventilators being produced, but we also have a situation where there are incentives for hoarding and price-gouging, because every single state and thousands of hospitals are trying to go out and source this scarce equipment wherever they can.

Governor Cuomo called for the federalization of the critical medical supply chain. I agree, and so do several of my colleagues. We have introduced legislation that would take temporarily federalize, not just the manufacture of these critical medical supplies, but also the distribution, so that we can make sure that it gets into the hands of the people that need it most, not the people who are willing to pay the most, or the people who are creative enough to find some manufacturer in a corner of their state that's willing to supply them.

This is a time where the private market builds in inefficiencies that will cost lives. And so we need a temporary federalization of the critical medical supply chain. Our legislation introduced in the House and the Senate this afternoon will do that. TAPPER: Yes. When you say "Lord of the Flies," I know a lot of

governors find themselves competing for bids with other governors, which just drives up the price and doesn't solve the problem.

Senator Chris Murphy, thank you so much. Appreciate your time today. Good luck getting that bill passed. The American people want Democrats, want Republicans to come together to fix this problem, and do so in a way that helps the suffering American workers. So, I appreciate your time.

MURPHY: Thank you.

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