Jessica Elledge

Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to Sen. Chris Murphy Opinions my own. #TeamMurphy

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

If this deal with Iran is real, I will welcome it because every day this insane war goes on, America gets weaker. The priority is to end the war - now.

But make no mistake: these are Iran’s terms. Our nation emerges humiliated.

1/ A 🧵 on what we know about the deal right now.

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

Trump's China summit could be a disaster. Why?

First, CORRUPTION (his billionaire backers want him to do deals that help them and hurt us).

Second, THE STRAIT (Trump could sell our our security to get China to help clean up his Iran mess).

1/ A 🧵on the major risks.

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

I want this war to end - now. And I want a deal that constrains Iran's nuclear program.

But what we are learning is that any deal Trump gets - and a deal is still very unlikely - is going to be WAY worse than the nuclear deal he cancelled a decade ago.

1/ Here's what we know:

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

Orban copied Trump. Trump copied Orban.

And in the end, the people of Hungary chose democracy and the rule of law. As will happen here too. But only if we do our work, like they did.

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

I'm helping to lead a group of Senate Democrats who are planning to force a vote - every single week the Senate is in session - to end the war in Iran. We have that right under the Senate rules, and we are going to keep putting Republicans on record supporting this insane war.

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

This is part of a larger trend of governments - including the Trump administration - trying to censor journalists reporting on the realities of this war.

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin must be released immediately.

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

Let's talk about Trump's insane plan to fix Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz by helping them close the Strait.

It's almost certain to not work, and risks further escalating the war. He's just compounding one mistake with another.

Let me tell you why.

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

Trump is calling reporters today to tell them he is going to commit mass war crimes next week. GOP leaders need to stop him.

Never mind that blowing up bridges and power plants and killing innocent Iranians won't reopen the Strait.

It's also a clear war crime. 1/ A 🧵on why:

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

Here's the problem. These are all "tactical" objectives. They are not strategy. Because there IS NO strategy.

1/ Let me take these "objectives" 1-4 to explain - based upon what I've learned in briefings - why we are badly and embarrassingly losing this war.

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

I was in a 2 hour briefing today on the Iran War. All the briefings are closed, because Trump can't defend this war in public.

I obviously can't disclose classified info, but you deserve to know how incoherent and incomplete these war plans are.

1/ Here's what I can share:

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

Trump's attacks on Iran are dangerously illegal and a mistake of staggering scale. Has he learned nothing from decades of U.S. military disaster in the Middle East? Has he spent not one single minute studying the lives lost and trillions wasted in Iraq and Afghanistan and Syria and Libya?
The American public does not want our President dragging us into another totally unnecessary conflict in a far-off land. They want him to focus on American lives — lives that are being ruined by an economy beset by flat wages, disappearing jobs, rising prices, and widespread corruption.
A military action to eliminate Iran's nuclear program was totally unnecessary. We had a diplomatic deal to do that. It was working until Trump — against the advice of all his advisors — tore it to shreds. Trump willfully precipitated this crisis.
As for Trump's stated goal of regime change, he should be very careful what he wishes for. If he fails in his goal, it hardens Iranian resolve to make trouble for the U.S. and our allies. If it succeeds, the chances are better that an even more repressive, more anti-Israel and anti-U.S. hardline government emerges out of the rubble than that a tolerant, inclusive Iranian democracy will.
The American people now see Trump for who he is — a would-be dictator who does not care what Americans think or want, cares nothing about our sacred Constitution or our laws, and sees himself as a kind of eighteenth-century king, with unlimited power to drag all of us into disastrous wars overseas without the consent of the people.
No, in America, we have no kings. One doddering, self-obsessed old man does not get to decide if we go to war. The people — through a vote of Congress — decide. That's what our Constitution says. It's clear as day. And Congress should be called back into session this afternoon to immediately begin debate on legislation that would approve or deny the President's illegal war against Iran.
I am praying for the safety of U.S. forces today. They are being led into war by a leader who is out of control. Congress must do our constitutional duty and reign him in, before it’s too late.

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

The invasion of Venezuela has nothing to do with American security. Venezuela is not a security threat to the U.S..

This is about making Trump's oil industry and Wall Street friends rich. Trump's foreign policy - the Middle East, Russia, Venezuela - is fundamentally corrupt.

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

My essay today in @FT on why the next era of American foreign policy must be focused on confronting and weakening concentrated economic power - in both the public and private sectors. https://t.co/AVDLu8DYqF

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

I and my team are following events in Russia and Ukraine closely. Here’s what I can share right now.

1/ Putin’s weakness has been exposed. He could survive, but power in Russia will be forever scrambled after this weekend.

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

Met today with my friend Dimitar Kovačevski, Prime Minister of North Macedonia. We both agree that North Macedonia should pass the technical change to its Constitution necessary to settle issues with Bulgaria. Let’s get North Macedonia into the EU!

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

Just off the phone with @CounselorDOS re this troubling development. In my meeting Monday in Pristina w/ PM Kurti, he made no reference of a plan to access municipal buildings. As a friend of Kosovo, I am caught totally by surprise and he should end this provocation immediately.

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

Today Republican Senator Bill Hagerty and I introduced a bill proposing a new approach to stopping fentanyl from getting to the U.S.

Our bill would interrupt the supply chain of the chemical components of fentanyl before the pills get to the U.S..
https://t.co/FOx5UPn9qT

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

On Feb. 10, U.S. forces in Africa conducted an operation that killed 12 al-Shabaab militants.

Most Americans have no idea we are at war in Somalia, and the idea that the 2001 AUMF authorizes this war is ridiculous. Congress needs to step up and rewrite the 2001 law or sunset it.

[John Hudson @John_Hudson]

This investigative article has new details on how Jared Kushner has benefited from Saudi money after leaving the White House https://t.co/cenhWxDPHo

[President Biden Archived @POTUS46Archive]

I want to thank Senator Chris Murphy and the bipartisan group for their gun safety proposal. It does not do everything that I think is needed, but it reflects important steps in the right direction.

With bipartisan support, there are no excuses for delay. Let’s get this done.