Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., speaks during the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia , Wednesday, July 27, 2016. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway, who broke the story of Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) having a secret meeting in a Munich hotel room with Iranian foreign minister and chief propagandist, Javad Zarif, blasted his response and Democratic hypocrisy on the issue on Fox.
Although Murphy acknowledged that we were in a “near war” situation with Iran and factually, their surrogates in Iraq are still attacking our people there, not only didn’t he admit any wrong in the meeting, he actually suggested it was his right to do so because when he claimed “Congress sets foreign policy too” (hint: read the Constitution, they don’t) and he claimed that “it’s dangerous not to talk to adversaries.”
2/ First, I urged him to control any Iranian proxies in Iraq who might attack U.S. forces and allies there.
Second, I pressed him to release American citizens being unlawfully detained in Iran.
Third, I pushed him to end the Houthi blockage of humanitarian aid in Yemen.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) February 18, 2020
4/ I wish President Trump would see that value too. Because our current policy of blind, non-strategic escalation is just making Iran more powerful and menacing, and making America weaker and less secure.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) February 18, 2020
Of course, he only admitted the meeting and tried to spin it after he was caught. We still don’t know who else might have met with them as well since other sitting Democrats were also at the conference as well as John Kerry, reportedly.
Hemingway pointed out the “hypocrisy” of Murphy’s claims.
From Fox News:
“A few years ago, when [former National Security Adviser] Mike Flynn, as an incoming member in the Trump administration, had a conversation with his Russian counterpart, Chris Murphy thought that this was treasonous, illegal — that Mike Flynn needed to have his life ruined,” Hemingway told “Fox & Friends.”
Hemingway pushed back that U.S. diplomacy can be harmed when other countries receive “mixed messages” from U.S. lawmakers. She said Murphy only released a statement after news of the secret meeting leaked out.
“The Department of Justice [and] media figures said that [the Flynn case] was a legitimate Logan Act violation, even though Mike Flynn was the incoming National Security Adviser. But now when Chris Murphy is having secret meetings in the hotel rooms of Iranian leaders … now he thinks that’s perfectly fine and, in fact, a very good thing,” she said.
Mike Flynn’s contact was perfectly normal, yet it resulted in him being investigated and ruined. Chris Murphy’s actions are not.
Murphy basically admitted in his Medium post that his purpose in Munich was to present a “different view” from present U.S. foreign policy which is set by the president, criticizing U.S. foreign policy at the conference. That was in addition to having the private secret meeting with the chief propagandist of a terrorist state at a time in his own words of “near-war” while their surrogates are still attacking us. He claims spoke with Zarif about Americans held hostage, the Houthis and not escalating attacks after the killing of Qasem Soleimani. But of course we don’t know exactly what he said, which is why you don’t have secret meetings with the enemy. He did not get State Department permission to go or clear anything with them as to what he was going to say. His whole Medium post is full of denunciations of Trump foreign policy.
Kerry’s presence there in Munich is another concern, as he has in the past also been caught holding secret meetings with the Iranians, trying to save the Iran Deal. He recently claimed he hadn’t met with the Iranians after 2018.
Kerry & Murphy illegally violated the Logan Act. This is why Iran is not making a deal. Must be dealt with strongly! https://t.co/RpTW9c09ZY
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2020
Only two people have been charged under the Logan Act but they were not convicted. But it’s hard to imagine a much clearer alleged violation than the actions here.
This is incredibly harmful to U.S. foreign policy, but it’s even worse under the position of being in armed conflict with them.
He needs to be investigated and held to account, big time.
