Senator Murphy On CNN: “Every Single Day, These Guys Are Stone Cold Liars.” 

From U.S. Senator Chris Murphy:

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Sunday joined CNN’s State of the Union with Dana Bash to react to the brutal killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis. Appearing on the program directly after Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, Murphy blasted the Trump administration’s shameless attempts to justify the shooting without evidence. Murphy linked ICE’s lawlessness and deliberate provocations of chaos and violence to President Trump’s larger project of cracking down on Americans’ free speech and subverting our democracy. He also urged his Senate colleagues to demand accountability and vote against providing new funding for the Department of Homeland Security without constraints to rein in the agency’s lawlessness.

Murphy called out Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino’s egregious lies about the Minnesota shooting: “I thought that was a bone-chilling interview. I was shaking as I was listening to it, in large part because it takes just an unbelievable amount of gall to lie to the American public. I mean, everybody saw that video, and yet, there he was telling you and telling the American public that this young man was brandishing a weapon, that he was impeding officers, that he was there to attend a riot, that he was engaged in assault when everyone can see that that’s not true. It should freak the American public out that the Trump administration lies this easily, will lie to your face when you can see the evidence for yourself…Every single day, these guys are stone cold liars.”

Slamming Bovino’s violent threats against Americans exercising their legal right to observe and record law enforcement, he continued: “What he essentially told you is that if you just happen to be present when they are undertaking an operation, if you pull out your phone to record it, the use of force against you is justified. That is not true. That’s not what the law says. That’s not what the Constitution says. But they have now, I guess, put Americans on alert that you are going to be shot by law enforcement officers if you are simply trying to witness and record law enforcement operations.”

Murphy laid out why the Senate must vote against funding DHS this week: “We can’t vote to fund this lawless Department of Homeland Security. And remember, it’s not just in Minnesota. They’re violating the law all over the country. I spent last week in Texas where they are locking up two-year-old and three-year-old kids who are here in the United States legally just for the purpose of traumatizing them. This is a nationwide campaign of lawlessness… We cannot fund a Department of Homeland Security that is murdering American citizens, that is traumatizing little boys and girls all across the country in violation of the law… This is something that I think the American people demand of us right now. 60, 70% of Americans don’t support what ICE is doing.”

Murphy warned Trump intends to expand his campaign of violence in American cities: “The fact of the matter is, Minneapolis is fundamentally less safe because ICE and CBP are there, and that’s the point. They are there to cause a conflict. They are there to create mayhem. And it isn’t going to be just isolated to Minneapolis as they continue to staff up with officers who are not trained for this kind of work. This is going to be in Philadelphia. This is going to be in Phoenix. This is coming to your city as well. And so if we don’t stop this in its tracks, what you are seeing in Minnesota – people being killed simply for exercising their First Amendment rights – is going to be a regular feature in this country. That is dystopian.”

Murphy argued the Trump administration is using ICE’s chaos as a flashpoint to subvert upcoming elections, pointing to Pam Bondi’s attempt to blackmail Minnesota into handing over their voter rolls in exchange for ICE’s departure: “Donald Trump has made it clear that he intends to try to interfere in the upcoming 2026 election. He says that his, you know, one regret from 2020 was that he didn’t take the voting machines. And it is really alarming that in this letter, Bondi says, ‘well, we’ll get the ICE officers out of Minneapolis if you give us control of your voter lists.’ It has always been, I think, the fear and now, I think closer to the reality that the Trump administration is creating this mayhem, particularly in cities in swing states, in order to take control of the election, to say, ‘oh, it’s the cities out of control, the states out of control. You can’t trust the state government. We just need to run the election in November.’”