U.S. Sen. Murphy ratchets up challenges to Trump

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy is using legislative and media channels to aggressively raise his visibility as a Capitol Hill critic of President Donald Trump’s policies and performance.

The Connecticut senator introduced a bill co-sponsored by 15 Democratic senators, including his Connecticut colleague Sen. Richard Blumenthal, to block the president”™s new executive order regarding travel to the U.S. from nationals of six Muslim-majority nations. “Our job is to keep the American people safe, but this hateful ban puts lives at risk,” Murphy said in his press statement. “ISIS is already using President Trump”™s order and the offensive rhetoric that defined his campaign to recruit more terrorists in the Middle East and indoctrinate lone wolves over the internet. A report by Donald Trump”™s own administration found there”™s no national security justification for it. Congress must pass this bill and block it now.”

Separately, Murphy in an appearance on MSNBC last night insisted that the president”™s foreign policy has alienated American allies to the point that “people feel embarrassed to be associated with the United States.” Murphy also pointedly criticized Republican Congressman Devin Nunes of California, the House Intelligence Committee chairman, for defending Trump”™s tweets accusing former President Barack Obama of wiretapping his telephones, adding “the reputation of the entire country at risk the longer that this floats out there.”