Sen. Chris Murphy: Trump’s refusal to concede is ‘jeopardizing American national security’

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Tuesday that President Trump refusing to concede defeat along with Republican leadership supporting his baseless claims of electoral fraud was “jeopardizing American national security.”

Speaking with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Murphy said, “The president’s delusion, which is being enabled by congressional Republicans, is jeopardizing American national security.” Murphy commented about national security concerns in light of Trump’s stance on the election as well as the firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Monday.

“There are a number of crises that are festering around the world right now. A conflict in Armenia and Azerbaijan, a hot war on the eastern edge of Ukraine, China pressing further into Hong Kong,” said Murphy. “President-elect Biden has to be ready to go on day one. It is true that we’ve probably never had someone so experienced with respect to foreign relations, but he hasn’t been getting these detailed briefings for four years.”

Murphy, who serves on the U.S. Senate committee for foreign relations, warned that if Trump does not provide access to information on these crises, the U.S. would be left vulnerable to its adversaries who could take advantage of the vacuum of power.

The senator also expressed concerns that the heads of the FBI and CIA, Christopher Wray and Gina Haspel, respectively, were at risk of being fired by Trump following Esper’s dismissal. Early reports came out in October that Trump was considering firing Wray after the election due to the FBI director’s refusal to provide information that could help him win reelection.

Mitchell also asked Murphy for his thoughts on Esper’s warning on the future of the Department of Defense after his termination.

“Who’s going to come in behind me? It’s going to be a real ‘yes man.’ And then God help us,” said Esper in an interview with the Military Times.

In response, Murphy baulked at the implication that Esper had managed the administration’s impulses during his time there.

“I think Mark Esper is trying to rewrite his own personal history. You’re going to have all sorts of leaders in the Trump national security team claiming that it would have been so much worse had they not been there,” said Murphy.

“I can’t imagine that it could have been much worse. We have shattered the relationship with our allies. We have become an unreliable unstable presence in the world. So many corners of the globe are on fire right now,” he continued. “So Mark Esper may try to claim that he was standing in the way of all sorts of terrible behavior by this administration [but] I don’t see much evidence of that.”