At 3:30 a.m. Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy warned from the Senate floor that America’s democracy is on the brink of collapse.
The Senate Democrat ranted about Elon Musk taking a wrecking ball to the administrative state and openly mused that President Donald Trump’s cabinet picks were going to hasten the death of America’s democracy. Though Trump has been in the Oval Office for less than three weeks, his administration is racing ahead to slash the federal bureaucracy by dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development and offering incentives to the federal workforce to voluntarily resign, among dozens of other initiatives.
Murphy’s three hour overnight screed was just one speech during a 30-hour long stretch in which Senate Democrats are continuously speaking on the Senate floor in order to delay Trump’s cabinet nominees from securing confirmation. The target of Murphy and other Senate Democrats’ ire is White House Office and Management and Budget Director-designate Russell Vought, who they view as a unique threat largely due to his prior history of effectively working to dismantle the administrative state bureaucracy during the first Trump administration.
“Darkness has descended” on America with Vought’s imminent confirmation, Murphy warned without evidence.
Just finished 3 hours of speaking on the floor – I took the 2-5am shift in Democrats’ effort to hold the floor all night in protest over OMB nominee Russel Vought.
My voice is shot but I’m going on IG live right now at @senchrismurphy to talk about why tonight is important.
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) February 6, 2025
“You can say that Democrats are crying wolf,” Murphy said on the Senate floor between the hours of 2 and 5 a.m. “Of course, America is always going to be a democracy. Every democracy dies. It does. Every democracy has an expiration date. Just like every civilization has an expiration date, there is an end, and there are a series of events that lead to that end.”
“Maybe this isn’t it,” Murphy continued. “But boy, when you package the list that I will give you together, it looks suspiciously like the road maps that caused other democracies to fall and it looks suspiciously like the set of things that our founding fathers were clear about protecting against.”
Murphy’s comments come just two weeks after the United States witnessed a peaceful transition of power and Trump won the so-called popular vote by more than 2 million voters.
As Democrats are divided on how to respond to Trump moving with striking speed to shrink the federal bureaucracy, Murphy advocated for his fellow Senate Democrats to take a swing-at-every-pitch approach that furiously opposes every action from the Trump administration.
“We need to act like a real opposition party in the middle of a constitutional and democracy crisis,” Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said on MSNBC Wednesday. “That means we should not be moving forward nominees or legislation in the United States Senate. Democrats should not be giving votes to nominees or legislation in the United States Senate until Republicans get serious about this crisis.”
Senate Republicans have said Vought has the votes to be confirmed and that Democrats’ filibuster is a pointless exercise.
At times, Murphy appeared to acknowledge his claims on Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency’s cost-cutting activities were devolving into outright conspiracy theories on the Senate floor.
“Elon Musk got access today to the entire Medicare and Medicaid payment system. Why? We do not know, but it is certainly plausible to believe that there are nefarious purposes afoot that his access to that system is part of a design to harm our democracy or enhance his economic interest.”
“I don’t know what the hell he’s doing inside that payment system,” Murphy continued. “And you can say, ‘well, you shouldn’t believe the worst,’ or ‘you shouldn’t just hypothesize.’ ‘You shouldn’t guess,’ but we haven’t been given a good explanation for something that looks like a fundamental perversion of precedent and the law.”
“I’m not a conspiracy theorist,” Murphy assured the empty Senate chamber.
Senators are scheduled to vote on Vought’s confirmation Thursday evening.
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