CNN "Piers Morgan Tonight" - Transcript: Ukraine Crisis

Interview

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MORGAN: And now, I want to turn to Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy. We just heard him on the Senate floor today. He's also going to join McCain's colleagues on the Foreign Relations Committee. Welcome to you senator. You didn't get a chance to respond Senator McCain earlier on the Senate floor but you can now. Over to you.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY, (D) CONNECTICUT: Well, that was an -- this idea that the invasion of Ukraine is Obama's fault is ridiculous. As I said on the floor, this has been Putin's envision. I agree with Senator McCain to reestablish their control over the near abroad, but he has pursued that policy under Republicans and under Democrats. He invaded Georgia under President Bush and frankly, President Bush didn't do too much about it, certainly didn't consider the kind of economic sanctions that President Obama is considering today.

And his idea of it, Obama is somehow weak in the world and maybe (ph) because he talks to our adversaries. It's ridiculous as well. That fact is we actually have a lot to work on with Russia. And so, we have talked to them about Afghanistan, counter terrorism measures, Syria, missile defense. That doesn't make him weak. That doesn't mean that Obama doesn't understand who Putin is, the fact is, is that Putin's ambitions stand solid regardless of whether these Democrats or Republicans in the White House, and what has really masks is the fact that John and I actually agree on what we should do from here, and instead of spending all of our time blaming folks for the situation we're in, we should be holding hands trying to get Ukraine and get the International Community out of this mess. MORGAN: One of the, in my view, more outlandish claims by some Republicans is that Obama is weak simply because he didn't gone bomb Syria when he have the chance and that somehow emboldened Putin to take the action he's doing now. I think that's pretty ridiculous. But what is your reaction to that?

MURPHY: Well, I mean, we are still cleaning up the mess of Iraq decade and a half later. And so, the notion of the only way that you can portray strength in the world is by invading and bombing other countries is ridiculous. The war in Iraq and frankly, the mismanagement of the war in Afghanistan has caused this country dearly in terms of treasure reputation and lives. I'm glad that we didn't militarily intervene in Syria. So are my constituents because they understand that there's a much different kind of power that needs to be exercised around the globe. One that actually comes with economic diplomacy which is exactly what we're going to do to try to move Russia back off of the precipice of crisis in Ukraine, and not crippling sanctions, the Russian government and the Russian economy make them rethink their entire approach here and that is exactly the kind of work that the United States should be doing rather than perceiving strength only to be a function of how many different countries you can invade in a period of time or in an administration.

MORGAN: And people are talking a lot about this word "deescalation" and saying that 24 to 48 hours are crucial. Do you think that anything can be achieved significant in that time scale?

MURPHY: I think there's a good chance that Putin is making this up as we go along. I think it has always been his broad mission to try to reestablish control of the former Republics. But, only two weeks ago, he had a president there, President Yanukovych who is essentially under his thumb and it was only when the Ukrainian people threw off that yoke of leadership that's he was faced with his only option at this point which was to march troops in. So, I'm not sure that we're going to see anything in the next 24 to 48 hours. It's going to dramatically change the situation.

Frankly, I think it's going to take the United States and Europe making Putin believe that we're serious about bringing down his economy if he doesn't change his mind. Right now, the Europeans are not where we need them to be. It may take a few days. It may take a week to get them to the point where they're ready to tell Putin, "Get your troops out of there or at least accept international monitor in the region that you're concerned about or we're going to exact sanctions on your people that you will come to regret.

MORGAN: Senator Murphy, thank you very much indeed for joining me.

MURPHY: Thanks, Piers.

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