Murphy on Trump's Iran War Chaos: We Are Becoming a Laughingstock in the World

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Wednesday spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate in support of a War Powers Resolution to end Trump's war with Iran. In his remarks, Murphy chronicled the last two weeks of President Trump's chaotic and confused public negotiations with Iran, marked by a dizzying, almost-daily onslaught of unhinged social media rants, contradictions, and falsehoods by the president. Murphy argued Trump's incompetence is harming American families and America's global reputation. He called on his Republican colleagues to stand up to the president and force an end to the Iran war.

"I get it that we have come to kind of normalize this kind of incompetence, this kind of planned, executed chaos, but we are on the floor week after week asking our colleagues to end this war because this is an embarrassment to the United States of America," said Murphy. "So many of us believe this war has to end right now, because as each mistake gets bigger than the next, the hole for the United States, for the American families, for our national security, is deeper and deeper."

Murphy blasted Trump's erratic diplomacy and the unserious people Trump has elevated to lead high-stakes negotiations: "The president and his negotiators arguing in public with each other. The president literally deciding by the hour whether his son-in-law is in charge of the negotiations or whether the vice president is in charge of the negotiations. The president lying consistently about the nature of the negotiations, saying things that have been agreed to that clearly have not been agreed to, helping the Iranians blockade the Strait. We've never seen a foreign conflict mismanaged in public like this before."

Murphy warned the costs of this war are compounding, extending far beyond the sticker shock Americans face at the gas pump: "We are hurting Americans [who are] paying billions more in gas prices. We are risking a global famine as fertilizer is unavailable to farmers all over the world. And the economy is shutting down because of the high price and shortage of fuel. The costs of keeping this war going one more day are just too high, both in reputational cost to the United States but also in the cost to lives and the pocketbooks of millions of Americans."

He concluded by urging his Republican colleagues to recognize the potentially irreparable consequences of this war and join with Democrats to protect America's interests: "I understand many of my Republican colleagues want to support their president, but we are becoming a laughingstock in the world… It is time for my Republican colleagues to join us in one of these resolutions, because it is so clear that if this war continues, even for another day, the reputational cost to the United States is potentially unrecoverable."

A full transcript of Murphy's remarks is available below.

Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank my colleague, Senator Baldwin, and others, for continuing to bring this debate before the Senate. Again, it's just extraordinary that this is the most significant military action that the United States has taken in decades, and there has yet to be one single hearing, one single debate, one single vote on an authorization of military force.

I want to target my remarks today on just what has happened over the past two weeks, because we tend to bounce from one news cycle to the next without really being able to connect together the growing incompetence that has defined the management of this war. We shouldn't sugarcoat or normalize this degree of gross, unacceptable incompetence being exercised here. We essentially have a talkshow host and a couple of real estate developers who are in charge of our war strategy. We are getting, essentially what you would expect if you put a talkshow host and a couple of real estate developers in charge of a major, middle east war. If millions of lives weren't at stake, and that's really what's at stake as the global economy threatens to meltdown because of rising gas prices and the fact that one third of all fertilizer supplies right now are stuck in the Strait of Hormuz. If this wasn't really about millions of lives being at stake, this would be the stuff of farce. One mistake just compounded by another. So many of us believe this war has to end right now, because as each mistake gets bigger than the next, the hole for the United States, for the American families, for our national security, is deeper and deeper. So I'm just going to very quickly run you through what has happened in the last two weeks.

So, we all remember on April 7th when Trump posts on social media that he is going to destroy Iran's entire civilization. He says the whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. Later that day, he announces that there has been a ceasefire. But within hours, there is, essentially, diametrically opposed interpretations from Trump and the Iranians as to the terms of that ceasefire.

The next day he puts out a series of posts, saying a big day for world peace, Iran wants it to happen. They've had enough. Likewise, so has everybody else. The United States of America will be helping traffic built up in the strait of Hormuz. There will be lots of positive action by the end of the day. On April 8th, the ceasefire has fallen apart.

Iran says that a ceasefire in Lebanon is also necessary in order to get the Strait of Hormuz opened. Trump is unable to secure that, and so by the end of the day, the day after the ceasefire is announced, the ceasefire no longer exists. Two days later on April 10th, Trump sent his Vice President JD Vance to Pakistan for negotiations. On April 11th, those negotiations are concluded after what appears to be an hour or two of face to face negotiations. Vance gets right back on a plane, after having spent an entire day, one day, negotiating the end of this war to come back to the United States.

That day, Trump says their leadership is dead. Not true. The Strait of Hormuz will soon be open. Not true. The US delegation led by Vance comes back to the United States without an agreement. On April 12th, Trump announces, this is the day after the negotiations fall apart, that he's setting up a blockade. So, the Iranians have a blockade on the Strait, now Trump announces a layered second blockade. But he's still saying that negotiations are going great. He says the meeting that day before went well, most points were agreed to, but not the only point that really mattered. Nuclear.

Of course, that's not true. Virtually nothing was agreed to in that meeting. He says the next day that his negotiators, who were talking about a twenty year moratorium on enrichment of uranium, do not have his support. He says "I've been saying they can't have nuclear weapons, so I don't like the twenty years." I mean we've never seen this before. Literally in public contradicting his negotiators who were negotiating the terms of an agreement just two days ago. Three days later on April 17th, Trump says that Iran again has agreed to everything including removing enriched uranium. Trump says our people are just going to go get the uranium and bring it back to the United States. Within hours, Iran says this is not true.

They say "we have the right, a sacred right, to enrich uranium on our soil." Trump says his negotiators are not considering releasing sanctions; two of his negotiators go to the press saying they were talking about releasing sanctions. This is diplomatic malpractice, the president of the United States and his negotiators argue with each other -- arguing with each other in public through the media. Then Trump says he is sending more people for new talks. The Administration then says Vance is going to Pakistan. Trump goes back to the President and says Vance is not going to Pakistan. The White House scrambles again and confirms Vance will be going. The problem: the Iranians have not agreed to the negotiations. A day later, the president says

Vance and a delegation are on their way, come to find out they are not leaving for Pakistan because the Iranians are not agreeing to negotiate. I get it that we have come to kind of normalize this kind of incompetence, this kind of planned executed chaos, but we are on the floor week after week asking our colleagues to end this war because this is an embarrassment to the United States of America. The president and his negotiators arguing in public with each other. The president literally deciding by the hour whether his son-in-law is in charge of the negotiations or whether the Vice President is in charge of the negotiations. The president lying consistently about the nature of the negotiations, saying things that have been agreed to that clearly have not been agreed to, helping the Iranians blockade the strait. We've never seen a foreign conflict mismanaged in public like this before. And so I understand many of my Republican colleagues want to support their president, but we are becoming a laughingstock in the world, and we are hurting Americans paying billions more in gas prices. We are risking a global famine as fertilizer is unavailable to farmers all over the world and the economy is shutting down because of the high price and shortage of fuel. The costs of keeping this war going one more day are just too high, both in reputational cost to the United States but also in the cost to lives and the pocketbooks of millions of Americans.

I know my Republican colleagues have a hard time breaking with their president. I will say that many of us, in closing, on the democratic side certainly had a hard time breaking with our president as well, whether it was Barack Obama or Joe Biden. But on multiple occasions, we did. Many of us argued against President Obama's war, and many argued against other policies, but we thought it was important to separate ourselves from our party loyalty when we thought that our president had gotten it wrong for national security. It is time for my Republican colleagues to join us in one of these resolutions, because it is so clear that if this war continues, even for another day, the reputational cost to the United States is potentially unrecoverable.