Murphy on U.S. Senate Floor: Preserving Our Democracy Matters More Than Anything

Press Release

Right after Senate Republicans blocked voting rights legislation, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn) on Wednesday highlighted the fragility of American democracy on the U.S. Senate floor. He slammed Senate Republicans for prioritizing power over democracy and ignoring the public efforts of former President Donald Trump and Republican state legislatures to undermine future elections.

On the fragility of American democracy, Murphy said: "There have been experiments over the course of world history, but no nation has sustained this idea longer than this one. In historical context, our democracy should be perceived as a tiny, fragile port in the middle of a raging storm, and none of us should be surprised that once in a while, some Americans, drawn to the old system of control by the strong and powerful, decide that it's time to give up and submit to the battering winds."

On former President Trump's public, ongoing election subversion efforts, Murphy said: "Can anybody really deny that this is the agenda? Of course that's what he's doing. Because it's what he tried to do -- transparently, unapologetically -- in 2020. And that's what he's telling us he's going to do in 2024. At some point, we just have to believe what we see and what we hear."

Murphy continued: "For the last decade, the entire legislative agenda here when Republicans have been in charge has been about giving more power, more money, more influence to the rich and powerful. They oppose President Biden's agenda to give tax cuts to the poor and middle class, to cut profits for the drug companies…Maybe Republicans aren't fighting to protect democracy like Democrats are because their reversion to a world where just the rich and powerful run the country, it just isn't as scary to that side of this body as it is to this side."

"I wish it was not only Democrats that see the miracle of our fragile democracy. Because the idea that a worker making $12 an hour gets just as much say in the future of their country as the CEO making $12 million a year, it is revolutionary. It is unnatural. And it matters more than anything -- even the traditions and the rules of the Senate," Murphy concluded.

Earlier this month, on the eve of the anniversary of the January 6th insurrection, Murphy highlighted the ongoing efforts across the country to subvert elections and sounded the alarm that the future of our democracy is at stake if the Senate does not act to protect the right to vote.

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