CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Chris Murphy

Interview

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COOPER: Now, of course, he's all in on crazy, frankly. But he doesn't want to be held accountable for it. Neither he of course nor any of the other Senate insurrectionists, we will call them on the program. We called all of them, by the way, none agreed to do it. And late today, Senators Perdue and Loeffler joined the dozen as well.

Joining us now, one senator who has spoken out against this sort of thing Democrat, Chris Murphy of Connecticut. Senator Murphy, you spoke on the Senate floor back on December 11, warning about what President Trump and the Republican allies were engaged in when it comes to trying to overturn the election, I want to play just part of what you said then.

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SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Right now, the most serious attempt to overthrow our democracy in the history of this country is underway. Those who are pushing to make Donald Trump President for a second term, no matter the outcome of the election are engaged in a treachery against their nation.

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COOPER: If you look at where we are now, it's only gotten worse, isn't it?

MURPHY: Yes, that seems like a lifetime ago, I gave that speech, December 11. At that point, we were just talking about a handful of lawsuits that were being brought to overturn the election. Now, we are talking about a full-fledged effort to end democracy as we know it, an effort that has the support of the majority of Republicans in the United States Senate and House combined.

Now, they are not going to be successful, it is worth repeating that over and over again. They're not going to win the vote on Wednesday. Joe Biden is going to be President of the United States, but the damage they are doing to our democracy is permanent because they have instilled this belief in a huge portion of the electorate, mostly Republicans and supporters of the President, that if a Democrat wins an election, then it's illegitimate by definition, that if a Democrat wins, it just must be because of cheating even if we can find no evidence of cheating. Well, that's not going to work this time around. But it will work, I'm

telling you two years from now, or four years from now, there will be some Democrat who wins in a red state and it will be overturned because of a belief in that state that Donald Trump is right when Democrats win they cheat. And that is the end of American democracy as we know it.

And so, you know, these Republicans in the Senate may think that they can get away with this, that it's all political theater, that it's just going to boost their popularity amongst Trump's base, no damage to the nation in the long run, they're wrong. They're not going to win this time around. But ultimately, this could be the undoing of American democracy.

I just think it's that serious, and I've thought that for a while,

COOPER: Well, you know and what they're depending on is that there are enough responsible Members of Congress and senators who will not vote that way along with them, so it gives them cover.

They are calling for something which threatens the entire -- our system of government and it's completely irresponsible and reprehensible. And they -- they're -- I mean, they know that it is not the case, but they want to keep Trump's base, they want to keep Trump happy and keep him tweeting favorably about them for any potential future run they have two years, four years from now.

But they know that they can do it because it won't actually happen. But that makes it -- I mean, it is just -- it's reprehensible.

MURPHY: Well, so I think that describes a handful of the individuals we're talking about. I think a handful of these senators do know that Donald Trump lost the election, and they're doing this to score cheap political points.

But I think it's important to recognize that there's a whole bunch of other Republicans in Congress, who actually do believe that their loyalty to the President outstrips their loyalty to the country.

There are a whole bunch of Republicans more so in the House than in the Senate, who are willing to throw out democracy in order to install the President again, because they believe that they need to put party and allegiance to Trump ahead of their allegiance to the country. They've kind of grown tired of democracy.

There are a lot of Republicans who aren't really interested in democracy if it doesn't result in their candidate winning, and I think you've got to understand that there are two sets of Republicans. Some that are doing this for crass political reasons, but there are some Republicans that actually have given up on democracy and that is really chilling.

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COOPER: People at home, they listen and they hear you say this is a threat to democracy itself. I mean, is that just hyperbole or if you really believe that, how is this a fundamental threat to democracy?

MURPHY: So let's play this out for a second. Donald Trump is not going to be successful, because in Georgia, we have a Secretary of State who is going to do the right thing. But why would any, you know down the middle, regular Republican put themselves through what the Georgia Secretary of State is going through right now?

In the future, it may be that only blind partisans, that only QAnon believers run for these election positions in places like Georgia. And if that is who is running our elections and that person gets a phone call from an anti-Democrat, like Donald Trump, then they will overturn a legitimate result, then it will result in the people's vote being thrown out.

And so that's one of the ways that this ultimately leads to democracy ending is that you get people installed in these election positions, who aren't like the Georgia Secretary of State, who are willing to do what the President is asking and that could happen as soon as 2022 or 2024. It's not like it is 10 years or 20 years down the line.

COOPER: Yes, Senator Chris Murphy. I appreciate it. Thank you.

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