00:00We got word that just a few minutes ago the U.S. resumed strikes on Iran, and I guess I'd
00:04like to start there if I could.
00:05The situation we find ourselves in, the plasticity of the president's policy toward the region right now,
00:10and your latest thinking on sort of where we are and where things are headed.
00:13I didn't know that we had stopped our strikes. This war restarted about a week ago. It shows no signs
00:18of ending.
00:19This is the most significant foreign policy disaster in the last 20 years. Iran effectively has control of the strait.
00:27They are going to have control of the strait for the long run. As a price of opening that strait,
00:32they want all of the sanctions released, which is going to put a lot of new money into their economy,
00:37but also allow them to send money out to their proxy groups in the region.
00:42This war should have never started. It's hard to figure out what to do now because it's kind of like
00:46asking somebody,
00:47now that the raw egg is splattered over the floor, how do you put it back together?
00:52But it seems as if the United States is going to have to pay that VIG, billions of dollars to
00:58Iran in sanctions relief,
00:59and we're going to have to prevail upon the Israelis to permanently stop the war with Lebanon.
01:05And if those two things happen, maybe we can get that strait reopened.
01:09I have no confidence that ultimately there's going to be any bigger deal between the United States and Iran.
01:16I don't think they're going to make any commitments on the nuclear program. So I guess the best we can
01:21ask for right now
01:22is to just stop the shooting, get the strait reopened. And we're still seemingly far away from that.
01:28As we look at Humpty Dumpty there on the floor, do you think the administration gets that?
01:32Are they still confident that they can stare down Iran, I guess, and find some solution by doing that?
01:37Yeah, I think we sort of can't overhype the degree that just plain old incompetence plays in this story.
01:44I mean, the Trump administration doesn't know what it's doing.
01:47Its primary diplomats with Iran are the president's son-in-law and a guy who was a real estate developer
01:54two seconds ago
01:54who's never done diplomacy. So it's not surprising that they're failing.
01:59They're going to either have to put actual adults, like experienced diplomats, in charge,
02:03or they're just going to have to step out of the way and ask our European friends or our Gulf
02:07friends
02:07to come in and try to seal an ultimate deal on reopening the strait.
02:13So I have very little confidence that this crowd that's in charge of our national security
02:18is going to be able to get anything done.
02:19We've seen in recent weeks your colleagues on the other side of the aisle,
02:23many of them expressing more reservations about this.
02:25Do you detect a real change kind of in their position as this is attenuated, as it plays out?
02:30I mean, this is, of course, a deeply unpopular war.
02:32The American people don't support the war. They want it to end.
02:35They're paying the price, not just in higher gas prices and higher diesel prices and higher fertilizer prices,
02:41but also in the cost of the budget.
02:43You know, this is $100 billion to $200 billion.
02:46And what is going to happen is that Republicans are going to cut funding for schools,
02:50for transportation, for nutrition, in order to pay for the war.
02:54That's part of the reason that the American public don't want it.
02:56So as you get closer to the election, this becomes an issue that Republicans are going to have to deal
03:01with
03:02because this will be an issue where voters are going to say, are you for the war or against it?
03:07And it's going to matter in their choices.
03:09So, yes, I expect that you will get more Republicans saying, time to end the war.
03:14For the first time ever, about three weeks ago, we passed a resolution in the Senate to end the war.
03:20It ultimately was stymied by some procedural moves in the Senate.
03:25But there is evidence that Republicans are starting to wake up.
03:27You mentioned Israel a moment ago, and I go back to that memo of understanding,
03:30which it seems was not worth the paper that it was printed on.
03:33I think the president would agree with that now.
03:35Israel, of course, is not a party to those conversations.
03:37And I'm curious how you look at the U.S.'s power to persuade Israel to scale back,
03:43pull back its campaign in Lebanon and change tack.
03:45I think you'll have to use the leverage that we have.
03:49And the leverage that we have is our defense relationship.
03:51So long as Israel believes that the Trump administration is going to continue to feed them
03:57the weapons and the intelligence that they need to carry out war on Lebanon,
04:01they're going to continue to carry out that war.
04:04That's a very blunt tool.
04:05It took me a long time to accept it as a tool to try to influence their behavior in Gaza.
04:11But if it is a precondition to getting the strait open,
04:15then we have to consider using that tool, because as long as the strait is closed,
04:19it is American citizens, families that are bearing the cost.
04:24Let's talk a bit about that pull to domestic politics here.
04:26And you mentioned it's a deeply unpopular war.
04:29How do you see that playing out in the months ahead?
04:30And how do you and your fellow Democrats kind of maybe capitalize
04:33is not the right word to use there,
04:35but highlight the fact that it's as unpopular as it is with the electorate?
04:39You know, what I found in my time in politics is that
04:42most of the time foreign policy doesn't matter in elections
04:45until it's sometimes the only thing that matters.
04:48And I do think that this election, it's going to be on the ballot.
04:53Even if Trump were to get the strait reopened today,
04:56the cost of a gallon of gasoline or fertilizer is not going to come down
05:01to any reasonable level by November.
05:03So it will be a voting issue and the president's foreign policy incompetence.
05:09And that agreement you mentioned, that ceasefire agreement,
05:11was just an example of incompetence, right?
05:13He signed an agreement committing Israel to do something without Israel at the table.
05:17He apparently by accident signed an agreement
05:20that actually gave control of the strait permanently to Israel, excuse me, to Iran.
05:25His foreign policy disasters are, I think, going to be relevant this November.
05:30I had Ambassador Rahm Emanuel here earlier, and he really seemed to welcome
05:34having this debate about U.S.-Israel relations going into the midterms
05:37and the general election on the heels of that.
05:40Do you likewise, I mean, there's a lot of ink being spilled here about
05:42the degree in which there's division in the Democratic Party,
05:44there's debate about Israel, how healthy that might be.
05:47Where do you fall on that?
05:48Well, I mean, broadly, I don't think you're a healthy party
05:51unless you're having debate, unless you have division.
05:55Part of the reason that the Republican Party is about to get their clock cleaned
05:59in this election is that they don't have any division.
06:01And you're confident of that?
06:02I am pretty confident of that.
06:03I mean, they're going to try to cheat their way to a win,
06:06but I'm confident that if it's a free and fair election,
06:08Democrats are going to do very well.
06:11Yeah, I think in a healthy political party, you have debate,
06:15and we certainly do have a debate in the Democratic Party
06:17about what to do with Israel.
06:18I mean, I'm somebody that wants a strong U.S. relationship with Israel.
06:22I do believe in the preservation and protection of a Jewish state in the Middle East.
06:28What Netanyahu is doing is not serving that objective.
06:31He is actually, in the long run, going to end up recruiting more enemies of Israel,
06:38both terrorist enemies and, frankly, countries that don't support Israel's existence
06:43through his conduct in both Gaza and in Lebanon.
06:47That's why I think we have to use blunt tools to get his policy to change.
06:51You allude to election malfeasance, the potential for that.
06:547 o'clock local time, 9 o'clock Eastern time,
06:56the president's going to give a speech to the nation
06:58and reportedly will focus on the 2020 election
07:02and election irregularities as he sees them.
07:04I'll ask you if you're going to tune into that, but more broadly here.
07:06What's the message of that and the danger of it, as you might see it,
07:09in him continue to espouse what we know not to be true?
07:12Well, the danger is that we, for the first time in American history,
07:15don't have a free election.
07:17I don't know what the president is going to recommend,
07:18but if he is trying to build the case to put troops out in the polling places,
07:24he will likely be stopped by the Supreme Court,
07:27and then we will see whether our democracy collapses
07:30and he does not listen to the decision of the Supreme Court.
07:33This is a really dangerous moment,
07:35and I'm really worried that so many of my Republican colleagues are quiet about it.
07:41You know, their party is a cult right now,
07:43and I am just still hopeful that some of my Republican colleagues will stand up
07:48and, when they hear his speech tonight,
07:50call it out for what it likely will be,
07:53the most significant rhetorical attack on democracy
07:57on the national airwaves that has ever been made in the history of the country.
08:02Let me ask you, lastly, just about your counsel,
08:05your vision for the Democratic Party.
08:06You have a new book out, Crisis for the Common Good,
08:08and a lot of the counsel in that book is just for us to come together
08:11more through clubs and activities
08:12and kind of re-engage with the way things used to be,
08:15not wholly leaning on nostalgia, but that's a part of it here.
08:18I could ask you if you're running for president.
08:20I expect you to demure on that,
08:22but let me ask you sort of how you see the future of the Democratic Party here,
08:25vis-a-vis that text,
08:26or just how you're thinking about the way your party should take shape
08:28here going to the next election.
08:29Yeah, I mean, I want my party to recognize that,
08:32you know, there's not just an economic crisis in this country,
08:35there's a spiritual crisis.
08:36People are feeling less meaning and purpose in their lives.
08:39They're feeling more disconnected from their family,
08:41from their community than ever before.
08:43We've got to sort of preach a gospel of happiness
08:45about how people can wake up every day
08:47and feel like they have real dignity and meaning in their work,
08:50how we can control these technologies
08:53that are sending their kids into lives of isolation.
08:57Our party sometimes, you know, solves very technical problems,
09:02like the price of a prescription drug,
09:03but doesn't explain to people how that's actually going to make them happier.
09:08If we were to lead this November and two years from now
09:13with a really aggressive plan on how to control the ravages of social media and AI,
09:19a space that, by the way, is open to the Democratic Party right now,
09:22like parents don't know which party to pick
09:25if they want to protect their children from AI,
09:27that would speak to families in a spiritual way
09:30because they feel like they're losing control of their lives
09:32at the hands of these new technologies,
09:35that's the conversation my book is trying to start in the party.
09:38Thinking of running?
09:39I mean, I think it's a little too early
09:40because we're not even sure that we're going to have a democracy in 2028,
09:44so let's make sure that we have a free and fair election in 2026,
09:47and then we'll all make our decisions for 2028.
09:49Senator Murphy, thank you very much.
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