Donald Trump is “stealing from the American people,” Senator Chris Murphy said on NBC’s “Meet the Press With Kristen Welker” Sunday morning. Murphy, a longtime outspoken critic of the administration, also insisted the president’s second term in office has in included “ten times more impeachable offenses” than the first.
Welker referenced Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s December comments that appeared to indicate Trump has not yet blurred the lines between impeachable and unimpeachable offenses thus far and asked Murphy for his thoughts. The senator made it clear he does not agree.
“Well, as you know, I would be a juror in an impeachment trial. So I don’t generally give advice to the House on whether or not they should impeach. But listen, I have common sense,” Murphy answered. “And so I know that this president has committed ten times more impeachable offenses in his second term as he did in his first term. He is stealing from the American people.”
He continued: “The amount of corruption that he is involved in, taking a luxury private jet from Qatar, trading national security secrets to a foreign nation in exchange for a $2 billion investment in his cryptocurrency. That is wildly corrupt. The House will make their own determination. But I don’t think it’s any secret that the president’s level of corruption and illegality is nuclear grade in his second term compared to his first term.”
Welker and Murphy also discussed calls for the abolishment of ICE. Murphy decried the way the agency is operating at present, but stopped short of calling for its complete dismissal.
“Well, of course you need a domestic enforcement mechanism for the immigration laws of this country. But the way in which ICE is operating today is inhumane and illegal,” Murphy said. “They rounded up a 16-year-old kid in Meriden, Connecticut, weeks before he was about to graduate, in the country legally, put him in detention for six months. And he got let out right before Christmas because the administration wouldn’t even show up in court to defend what they had done. And that is happening thousands of times over in this country. Peaceful, legal immigrants being put in detention. That’s not a system that anybody in this country wants to fund.”
Trump was impeached for the first time in December 2019. At the time, the House of Representatives voted on two articles of impeachment that chargeed Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. For abuse of power, the House voted 230-197; for obstruction of Congress, the voted was 229-198.
“I view this day, this vote, as something we did to honor the vision of our founders to establish a republic, the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform to defend our democracy, and the aspirations of our children that they will always live in a democracy, and that we have done everything we can to make sure that that is their reality,” then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at the time.
Trump was impeached for a second time in January 2021 and became the only American president to be impeached twice. For the second vote, the House voted 232-197 in favor of the impeachment, with five not voting. A total of 10 Republicans voted to impeach.
