WASHINGTON – While President Trump continues to question whether Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday juxtaposed the U.S. Department of State’s work to counter Russian propaganda and disinformation while President Trump attacks U.S. media outlets. Murphy pressed U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs A. Wess Mitchell on U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s remarks that we should separate the president’s rhetoric from his policies.

Excerpts from Murphy’s remarks are below:

“I thought that our hearing with Secretary Pompeo was extraordinary and I frankly wish it had gotten more attention. I thought it was extraordinary in a number of respects, but chiefly, in the argument that the secretary was making to us, that we should ignore what the president says and pay attention only to what the state department does, and we're hearing a strain of that today.

“… the argument is extraordinary, because it essentially admits that there are two different foreign policies today. There’s one articulated by the president in a statement that he makes standing next to President Putin or on his Twitter feed. Just yesterday to Reuters the president once again said it might not have been the Russians in U.S. Elections. And then there is the, I would argue, much more mainstream foreign policy being administered in part by the two incredibly capable patriotic representatives of the American government standing here today.

[…]

“…there was a really interesting poll of about one week ago in this country that showed that 43% of Republican voters believe the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior. Which is reflective of this obsession, especially over the past few weeks, that the president has with what he calls the enemy of the people. Which is a really, really terrible term given the fact that it is rooted in a Stalin era murderous campaign against journalists and anyone that opposed the Russian government at that point.

“…then the president is handing the Russian government a gift by his regular attacks on the free press which seem to endorse the same kind of work that Putin is doing in his own country and around the periphery. And so I guess the question is, isn't Putin’s assault on the free and independent press inside Russia and in the Russian periphery emboldened by President Trump's regurgitation of the Stalin era attacks on American media?”

 

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