Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Thursday that the Democratic Party has trouble making the case that President Donald Trump is corrupt because of the past abuses within its ranks.
“When we talk about Trump’s corruption, we’re not terribly credible because the American public looks at Democrats and assumes that we’re just as corrupt,” Murphy said at a Center for American Progress event in Washington D.C. “And we obviously have had some pretty high-profile problems in our party in the last decade.”
While declining to name specific examples, Murphy said Democrats’ 2024 messaging of saving democracy “fell flat” because voters thought “this version of democracy seems rigged” or “only works for the powerful.”
Murphy’s comments came at a liberal event in Washington D.C., moderated by Neera Tanden, who is under congressional investigation into whether White House aides covered up former President Joe Biden’s health decline. Neither Tanden nor Murphy addressed the controversy, which escalated this week when Trump ordered an investigation into Biden’s White House and the House Oversight Committee subpoenaing Biden’s doctor.
Murphy, who has become a prominent messenger for the Democratic Party and recently launched a PAC to take on Trump, said that while he had “few quibbles” with Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign, Democrats need to work harder to appeal to young people and men.
“I think young people do fundamentally believe that the Democratic Party is just as corrupt as the Republican Party is, and so while they’re noticing Trump’s corruption, they don’t see it as a reason to come out on the streets, because the alternative doesn’t look much better,” Murphy said, citing Trump accepting a luxury jet from Qatar as one example.
Murphy told the audience that Democrats have a habit of normalizing corrupt government acts by not bringing enough attention to them. He called for “bold” government reforms to restore credibility and to rally around a mission of “unrigging the economy.”
“We probably do need a constitutional amendment to allow us to properly regulate campaign finance,” Murphy said. “And we’re not for that because it’s hard? Well, that’s not a good reason to not be for that.”
Murphy was asked by a college student in the audience about the shift in young men away from liberalism. He criticized the Left for their treatment of male mental health in what he deems as a post-feminism “loss of meaning and purpose.” Democrats have responded that men should “get over it,” and “that’s not satisfactory,” Murphy said.
“There is a difference between male identity and female identity and there are still some really important things about masculinity, whether it be physicality or risk-taking, that are still core parts of your identity that you do not have to lose even in a moment when you are competing, rightfully, with women in the workplace,” Murphy said.
Murphy, who is considered a possible 2028 presidential contender, said Democrats also need to be authentic.
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“Authenticity of voice is really important for young people. We’ve got to start talking in an unfiltered way more often,” said Murphy, noting he runs his own social media accounts.
Murphy warned about the “death of democracy” several times and said that it does not happen in one week, but over time, comparing the Trump administration to regimes in Hungary and Turkey.