Murphy On Fox News Sunday: Democracy Should Respond To The Will Of The American People

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Sunday joined Fox News Sunday's Jacqui Heinrich to discuss Vice President Kamala Harris' strong record of leadership, his support for eliminating the filibuster to make democracy work better, the stakes of the 2024 election and the threat Donald Trump poses to the future of American democracy.

Murphy highlighted Kamala Harris' success in dramatically reducing migration from Central American countries: "The figures I have seen show that from the three Northern Triangle countries that Kamala Harris was put in charge of stemming migration from, migration has dropped by 50- to 60 percent from those countries. It started high in part because of a series of crises that unfolded during the Trump administration. What drove the increase in migration was, in part, huge increased travel from a country like Venezuela, which was plunged into economic crisis because of Donald Trump's policies. Kamala Harris was given an important but discrete task, she was able to dramatically reduce migration from those countries, and, again, apples to apples, crossings at the southwest border are lower today than they were at the end of the Trump administration."

Murphy expressed his support for eliminating the filibuster to ensure Congress reflects the will of the American people: "I just don't think that democracy can allow for 40% of the United States Senate to stand in the way of progress that's popular with the American public. Ninety percent of the American public supports background checks on guns sales. We can't pass that through the United States Senate not because we can't get 50 United States senators, but because we can't get 60 United States senators. So there are many very popular proposals that we can't pass simply because of the filibuster. But let's talk for a second about the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is captured by corporate interests today. And the American public knows that. So yes, we should also have a conversation about what to do about a Supreme Court that is increasingly way out of step with the American public and with some members that are brazenly corrupt."

"All I know is that I want democracy to respond to the American public when they want something done, and right now, the filibuster often stands in the way of getting that done," Murphy added.

Murphy also drew a stark contrast between the leadership of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump's authoritarian Project 2025 agenda: "What's at the heart of any democracy? A majority of Americans that elect leaders who agree with them getting what they want. And so I just think that when there's a majority of Congress in favor of a policy, that policy should get to the president's desk. So yes, Kamala Harris is probably going to run on a series of reforms to make democracy better. Contrast that with Donald Trump, who has promised on day one to become a dictator-to suspend democratic norms, running on a Project 2025 platform that calls for turning the Department of Justice into an operation to hunt political opponents and kill political dissent. So yeah, I think there's going to be a clear contrast in this election between Kamala Harris, who's going to run on a platform to make democracy work better, and Donald Trump, who is promising to suspend democracy."

###