CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Chris Murphy

Interview

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Joining me now one of the key Democrats, Senator Chris Murphy, of Connecticut. Senator Murphy, it seems that Senator Grassley and Senator Gardner who said they'll essentially be on board with Mitch McConnell. This is over, isn't it? I mean, the Republicans seem to have the votes.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Well, it's not over in part, because we don't even know who the nominee is. I mean, maybe you can come to the conclusion that the Republican Party has just become a big cult of personality, and so there's no drama as to whether or not they're going to support the President's nominee. But let's be clear what the stakes are. You have noted that today, we

will cross the 200,000 threshold with respect to the number of Americans that have died from COVID. Right now, pending before the Supreme Court is a case that would invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act, robbing people, 20 million of them of healthcare in the middle of a pandemic, and raising rates for anybody in this country who has had COVID, or tests positive for the antibodies of COVID.

And so I still am going to make the argument to my colleagues that if they're looking at a nominee that is going to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, they better think twice, especially given that so many of them are on the ballot. I think that this ultimately will end the political career of some of my Republican colleagues. And so I'm just going to keep the fight up to win this on the merits.

COOPER: How would that actually work in terms of -- I mean, if all this did -- you know, if the nominee was selected and confirmed and the Affordable Care Act was ruled unconstitutional in the Senate, how would -- what would that actually look like? I mean, how quickly would people lose their health insurance?

MURPHY: They would lose it immediately. So the case is pending before the Supreme Court asks for the act to be invalidated immediately, the entire act, every piece of it: the Medicaid expansion, the prohibition on discrimination, because you have a preexisting condition, the exchanges.

So if this lawsuit, which is being brought by Republicans and the President, was ultimately won by the plaintiffs, and that's where this would go, if they get this nominee confirmed. You would have the immediate loss of insurance for 20 million Americans and then you would have insurance companies back in the position of being able to increase your rates if you have a preexisting condition and COVID is preexisting condition.

And insurance companies will clearly go back and start using those practices again. So it's a humanitarian nightmare. And it happens, you know, potentially, as soon as this case is reheard by the new court. So maybe beginning of next year,

COOPER: The President keeps saying he has a health insurance plan, but for some reason that it can't be seen at this point. At this point, he has certainly been saying he has a great healthcare plan for four years now, and nothing has been shown. I mean, am I missing something? Is there something out there?

MURPHY: Well, I mean, Republicans have been saying that, you know, since the Act was adopted, I mean, back in 2011, Republicans were crying repeal and replace, but they never ever had any plan to replace the Affordable Care Act.

And, you know, what people are figuring out over time is that the Affordable Care Act is a pretty good deal. It provides, as I said, 20 to 25 million people with insurance that wouldn't have it, and it stops these insurance companies from raising your rates if you have cancer. We almost can't remember the time when if your child had a leukemia diagnosis, you couldn't get insurance for them.

And again, this is really scary now because, you know, when we do the antibody tests, it may be that big portions of the American population have actually had COVID. That's a preexisting condition. You might get denied health insurance if this Supreme Court nominee gets on the bench and there is no replacement coming.

The President doesn't have a replacement. Republicans don't have a replacement. If the Affordable Care Act goes away because of the Supreme Court nominee, all that happens is the massive, massive loss of life in this country because people can't afford insurance.

COOPER: What can Democrats do? I mean, obviously, you know you say you want to urge your colleagues, obviously, you want to urge people to vote. Other than that, is there anything to be done legislatively?

[20:25:09]

MURPHY: Well, I mean, I was on the floor of the Senate tonight. Are you with my Republican colleagues about what the stakes are here? Obviously, you know, we sequence this. You know, we haven't given up on trying to convince a few of our Republican Senate colleagues to do the right thing here.

I mean, it's just treachery, by the way for them to deny President Obama's nominee under the rule that you can't confirm anybody in an election year and then just four years later, admit that they were lying in 2016 when they set that rule.

And then we'll argue this on the merits of the stakes of the nomination. We will rally the American people to the cause. I think with an election pending, it's not a guarantee that some of these Republican senators who are in tough races are going to vote for a radical conservative, anti-Affordable Care Act nominee.

But that's up to their constituents. It's up to the American people to help us and rally to the cause to make the political consequences of a bad vote for Republicans, very clear and apparent to them.

COOPER: Yes, Senator Murphy, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

MURPHY: Thank you.

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