CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript Interview with Chris Murphy

Interview

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[10:55:12]

SCIUTTO: Back with us now, Democratic senator from Connecticut Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Just first there, if you can, reaction to the president's chief of staff confirming the president now has symptoms of a COVID infection?

MURPHY: Yes, I wish he was a little bit more detailed about those symptoms, but it is good news that the president is awake and alert, that's important for our adversaries around the world to hear.

I will say though that it was disturbing to see Mark Meadows doing that briefing, having been in close contact with the president, and not wearing a mask. He says he had tested negative, but often those positive results don't show up for several days, and so it just doesn't appear to me that the White House has gotten the message. They seem to still be playing way too fast and loose with CDC guidelines, and that's a really, really dangerous message to send to the country.

SCIUTTO: Our adversaries, this country's adversaries are very aware of internal challenges -- right? -- as they might affect the attention of the commander in chief, the White House, et cetera. How do North Korea, Russia, China, Iran, others -- is it possible they sense vulnerability in this and seek to take advantage?

MURPHY: Well, and that is certainly something you worry about when you hear that the president has been incapacitated, which is why I think it's important for this White House to be fully transparent about the president's condition. This idea that they're going to get away with just saying he has mild symptoms when we know this virus can be deadly and incapacitating for someone of the president's age and medical condition, just isn't enough.

In particular, I think about Iran. You know, there are recent reports suggesting that Iran is not done with its campaign of retribution against the United States for the killing of Qasem Soleimani. And we know that rocket attacks on U.S. forces inside Iraq have increased.

And so when you're thinking about the potential threats that come with a president that might not be in a position to make good decisions, Iranian behavior is at the top of the list.

So again, I think important for Meadows to make clear that the president is still in control. But I think they need to be much clearer about what's going on up in that residence.

SCIUTTO: Understood. And they have not been fulsome in their sharing of information about the president's health in the past.

I want to talk about Russia because yesterday, we're days away from the U.S. election. You tweeted this public comment, and you were briefed on the intelligence here. That there is evidence of a giant -- quoting from you -- "multiyear effort to help Trump in 2020 by Russia." What can you tell us about that?

MURPHY: Well, what I can tell you is that it's much bigger and bolder and smarter than it was in 2016. the Russians have learned and they are now trying to use U.S. persons and fake websites in order to proffer a narrative that helps President Trump's re-election. And I also think that you have to be, you know, much more serious about the Russian threat given todays' news.

If President Trump can't be out there on the campaign trail for the next two weeks, then he is going to rely on his surrogates. And unfortunately, one of his surrogates is Vladimir Putin. So you are likely going to see this campaign ramped up by Russia over the next few weeks to try to substitute for the president's absence on the campaign trail.

And my worry is that the intel agencies are not being clear with the American people about the size of the Russian operation and their clear desire to try to elect President Trump to a second term.

SCIUTTO: So intel agencies playing this down to the detriment of the security of the election. We also know that surrogates of the president met with a known Russian intelligence agent in Andriy Derkach, a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician. Are you saying that Americans are aiding and abetting?

MURPHY: Well, I didn't say that, but H.R. McMaster, the former national security advisor, did. He in fact said the president was aiding and abetting Russia's efforts. And you know, we found out that there was a Russian agent who was

actively intermingling with the president's inner circle, and it was buried in a Treasury sanctions announcement. The intel agencies want to make you believe that well, you know, the Russians are for Trump but the Chinese and the Iranians, they're for Biden.

Well, that's not true. We don't know exactly what the Iranians and the Chinese are doing; we know exactly what the Russians are doing, and we know exactly what they want. And the intel agencies have to stop doing Trump's political bidding and have their clients, the American people, first.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Very quickly before we go, should voters -- the American people -- be concerned that the president's diagnosis here is at all a threat to the election, the sanctity of the election, the safety of the election?

MURPHY: Well, I hope that not to be the case. And for today, I'm going to trust Mark Meadows' information that the president, while having mild symptoms, is still awake and alert and able to run the country.

But we know we can't trust this White House, and so that's why we have to demand that we hear from the president's doctors, that we get more information to know whether we have to be in a situation to think about alternatives.

[11:00:04]

SCIUTTO: Senator Chris Murphy, thanks so much for joining this morning.

MURPHY: Thanks, Jim.

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