WASHINGTON–U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Sunday joined Fox News Sunday’s Shannon Bream to discuss the conflict in Israel, campus protests, President Biden’s record, and his “Restoring The Common Good” initiative with Republican Governor of Utah Spencer Cox.

On the long-term impact of Israel’s military operations, Murphy said: “I think my worry is that the nature of this operation is ultimately going to make it more likely, in the long run, that there's another terrorist attack on Israel, perhaps that there's a terrorist attack on the United States. Listen, we have learned the hard lesson, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, that you cannot defeat a terrorist force simply with military force. And so what's happening, according to our own intelligence analysis, is that we are essentially creating bulletin board material, recruiting material, for terrorist groups all around the world when you have 13,000, 15,000 children dying inside Gaza. So I think this is a moment where Israel needs to look to wrap up this campaign. I think it's important for the United States to play a role in helping to facilitate that transition. And in the end, you have to understand that a military campaign alone cannot do the job to try to defeat an ideology like Hamas.”

On the current protests on college campuses, Murphy said: “We should all speak out, when protest crosses the line, when it becomes violent or when there's hate speech. But 95% of the young people who are on these campuses are there because they believe there is a fundamental injustice being perpetrated in Israel. We should protect their right to peacefully protest, and you know, we also have a history of overnight, multi-day protests in this country. I don't think there's anything wrong with protecting the ability of peaceful protests to last beyond a handful of hours.”

Murphy highlighted President Biden’s strong record of success: “This President has presided over an economy that is growing at record rates. We have unemployment at a structurally low number. If you want a job in this country, you can get it. Crime is plummeting. We saw a 12% reduction in crime in our urban areas. Listen, there's still a lot of progress to be made here. But if Donald Trump wins, it's going to be the same trickle-down economic policies that we lived with. You will have a reckless, irresponsible administration that tries to seek to divide us from each other. Joe Biden still has work to do, but this is a growing, good economy. Our streets are safer. This country's respected around the world again. I admit this is going to be a very close election. But I think Joe Biden is going to have an incredible record to run on.”

This week, Murphy announced the launch of his joint initiative with Utah Governor Spencer Cox to convene discussions around how to restore the value of the common good to American life.  Following their first forum in Salt Lake City, Murphy said: “We've got to find a way to be able to talk to each other in a more functional way. Governor Cox and I are specifically talking about the ways in which this country has really devalued the common good. We've become a hyper-individualistic country. I love entrepreneurship. I want people to succeed individually, but I want us to care about our neighbors in a way that I don't think we do like we did 30 or 40 years ago. So Governor Cox and I are going to try to come up with a set of ideas that maybe break through the rigid fights the left and right have to try to rebuild a sense of common good in this country. We'll see if we succeed. I know what we're doing is a little countercultural, but I do think it scratches a pretty big itch across this country.”

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