Source: United States Senator for Connecticut – Chris Murphy
May 28, 2023
WASHINGTON–U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Sunday joined MSNBC’s Inside with Jen Psaki to discuss the White House’s agreement with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to prevent the federal government from defaulting on its debt. Murphy also discussed Russia’s incentive to meddle in the 2024 election given top Republican candidates’ weak position on Russia’s war against Ukraine.
On the deal to prevent default, Murphy said: “[F]rom what I can see, Republicans didn’t get any of the big things they were asking for. They didn’t get massive, long term cuts to programs for the poor or the middle class. They didn’t get the repeal of the President’s signature renewable energy bill. They didn’t get big new requirements that push people out of the Medicaid program. So I’m going to take a look at what’s on the table, but it’s pretty clear that President Biden kept the most reckless things that Republicans were asking for out of this agreement.”
Murphy warned that House Republicans could still use procedural tactics to trigger default: “Well, you’re really playing with fire, it’s going to take at least three or four days for this to get through the House of Representatives. And then it could take as long as a week if Republicans use all of the procedural tactics at their disposal. That, of course, would result in a default on American debt. It’s something that we would never recover from. But listen, part of the reason that I was reluctant to get involved in these negotiations is that I think there’s a whole big swath of the Republican Party that actually wants us to default…and you’re starting to see the Freedom Caucus already rallying the troops against this deal. My worry is that there may still not be enough Republicans in the House to get this deal done. So yes, there are a lot more responsible voices in the Republican Party in the Senate, but it can’t get to us if McCarthy can’t deliver his caucus.”
On Russia’s incentive to get involved in the next presidential election: “They are going to try to influence this election if they think that a Republican candidate will pull the United States out of the war because without the United States right now, Russia marches into Kyiv. That’s just the reality. And so Russia wins the war if the United States withdraws its support. And now that they see signals from DeSantis and Trump that they’re going to do Russia’s bidding, I really think that that’s a green light for the Russians to play a lot of the same games, maybe even more sophisticated, maybe even more overt games than they played in the 2016.”
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