The senator told WAMC that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s months-long campaign to carry out the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown isn’t what anyone in America wants, regardless of party affiliation.
“There are a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump because they thought the border was out of control, and they wanted to have more certainty about who can come into this country and who can't. But those people were not up for schools being teargassed, American citizens being murdered, legal immigrants being targeted,” said Murphy. “The real story here is that 80%, 90% of the people that are being picked up are not criminals, have no criminal history. They're here legally applying for asylum. That's un-American to most people in this country. Right now, we are not funding the Department of Homeland Security, and speaking for myself, I'm not going to give one more dime to that agency if they continue to violate the law, and they're violating the law every single day.”
Murphy boycotted Trump’s State of the Union Address this week, and said that after having listened to it, he didn’t miss much.
“I mean, it just was a pointless speech. I mean, it was all grandstanding, all show. There were no serious proposals for how to fix the country, probably not a single meaningful idea to try to lower costs for people, which is what's driving people crazy in this country,” the senator said. “I didn't go because I think he's made a mockery of the speech, and I don't think he deserves an audience. I also think the Democrats need to stop pretending things are normal. They're not normal. This is a president who's actively trying to destroy our democracy, and every time we show up for the State of the Union speech, we legitimize him and his campaign of assault against the rule of law. So, I didn't go.”
One of the most surprising political stories of 2026 is the friendly relationship between New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani – a Muslim and democratic socialist – and Trump, a Republican and staunch nationalist. Murphy says Democrats – facing high unfavourability polling and failure in the 2024 presidential election – can learn a lot from the pair’s unlikely successes.
“Trump clearly ran as a fake populist, right? I mean, he ran from outside the system. From the moment that he took that escalator down to give his announcement speech, he was signaling that, I'm not going to run inside the system. I'm not going to govern inside the system,” said the Democrat. “That is really attractive to people who want outsiders, who want candidates who have big ideas, and Trump had big ideas, right? Build a wall with Mexico, levy huge enormous tariffs on goods coming into the United States. Mamdani had, and still has, big ideas, right? Free transportation, government-run grocery stores, rent being frozen. I think that's their similarities, and I do think we should learn from Trump that people want big ideas, that people want candidates that are going to challenge the system.”
Murphy says big thinking is what his party is missing.
“I think the Democratic Party has been kind of addicted to incrementalism,” he told WAMC. “Our ideas are just not big enough to match the bigness of the problems that people face. We don't need a $10, $12 minimum wage- We need a $25 minimum wage. We don't need to curb the abuses of these big corporations- We need to break them up. We don't need unions that are sitting at a level playing field with management- We need to tip the playing field towards labor unions and towards collective bargaining, empowering workers.”
To that end, Murphy says Democrats need to focus more on economic populism and less on social issues fueling the ongoing culture wars.
“If you are up for de-rigging the economy, breaking up concentrated corporate power, empowering workers, and you're up for unrigging the democracy, getting big money, billionaire money, corporate money, out of politics, you should be a Democrat,” said the senator. “And we shouldn't throw you out because you don't agree with us on abortion or climate or guns. We should have, I think, a greater understanding of the fact that we can grow power as a party if we're a bigger tent and less judgmental than we historically have been.”
Another issue prompting re-evaluation within the Democratic Party ahead of the next election is Israel. A recent Axios article found that internal Democratic National Committee research determined that the Biden-Harris administration’s support of Israel cost the party votes in the 2024 election. Murphy says his views on the country have evolved over time.
“I abhor what Hamas did on October 7, I want there to be a permanent Jewish state in the Middle East, but the United States cannot continue to support Israeli policy that is ending in tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians being killed, that is eliminating the ability for the Palestinians ever to secure a nation of their own,” he told WAMC. “Israel's policy in Gaza and in the West Bank is immoral, but it is also a strategic mistake. Ultimately, they are creating just as many future terrorists as they are eliminating and a future without a Palestinian state is not a secure future for Israel. So, while is heartbreaking for me to have arrived at the position I am at today, that I will not support additional military aid to Israel until their policy changes, I think that's the right answer morally, and I think it's the right answer strategically, both for the United States and for Israel.”
Murphy was re-elected to a third six-year term as Connecticut’s junior senator in 2024.
