Chris Murphy 🟧 Profile picture
Dec 18, 2024 9 tweets 3 min read Read on X
It's happening right in front our eyes. It's accelerated rapidly in the last 24 hours. Not sure why everyone doesn't see this.

1/ Can I take a minute to connect the dots - on how Trump is putting into action a plan to cripple our democracy in a way we may never recover from?
2/ He wasn't kidding when he said Democrats were the no. 1 threat to America and needed be dealt with by law enforcement and the military.

Today House Republican's referral of Liz Cheney for criminal prosecution - on made up charges - shows you the plan.
yahoo.com/news/key-repub…
3/ Who will stand in the way of Cheney and others being put in jail?

Not DOJ. Kash Patel was chosen to lead the FBI BECAUSE he wants to prosecute Trump's opponents.

Not the courts. Trump's pliant DOJ can handpick a jurisdiction with a MAGA judge.
rollingstone.com/politics/polit…
4/ Not every Trump opponent will fold, but many will. If you have a family at home, are you really going to stand up to Trump if there's a chance you could end up in jail?

History shows that selective prosecution of a regime's opposition has a broad chilling effect.
5/ The second part of Trump's plan is to use the White House to destroy the free media. Today's lawsuit against the Des Moines Register - just because they released a poll showing a close race in Iowa - is stunning. We shouldn't pretend this is normal.
nbcnews.com/politics/2024-…
6/ Already, you see how the big media companies are giving in. ABC paid Trump $15m even though his defamation suit had no merit. Bezos told the Post to not endorse against Trump. MSNBC is up for sale because Comcast doesn't want to get in trouble.
thehill.com/media/5042894-…
7/ Sometimes Trump will win these suits because he controls the DOJ and some courts, but other times he doesn't care. After he lost one case against a journalist, he said, "I did it to make his life miserable, which I'm happy about."

He gladly admits it's about intimidation.
8/ Trump has also said he will use the FEC and regulatory agencies - all of which will be run by his blind loyalists - to intimidate news orgs. Even if he uses this power rarely, media companies have already shown they are reluctant to put up a fight.
cnn.com/2024/10/22/med…
9/ Is there a chance this is all show and bluster? Maybe, but the developments of just the last few days - ABC's bogus settlement, the referral of Cheney for prosecution, Trump's suit against the Register - all point to this being very, very real.

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More from @ChrisMurphyCT

Jan 6
5 years ago today, our Capitol was attacked. A year ago, Trump pardoned the worst attackers as a reward for their violence.

You should know them.

1/ Let's start with David Dempsey - he was out for blood: pepper sprayed officers, stomped on their heads, beat them with poles.
2/ This is DJ Rodriguez. He posted: "There will be blood. Welcome to the revolution". He beat officers with a wooden pole, tasered an officer in the neck causing a heart attack.
3/ Here is Thomas Webster. He led the charge to break into the Capitol. He beat officers with a metal pole, held one down so rioters could brutally kick him.
Read 4 tweets
Dec 19, 2025
Trump will do anything to distract from the Epstein scandal and high prices.

But this is no ordinary distraction. He's putting us on the brink of war, and his national security team is lying to Congress.

1/ A short thread on why you should be paying close attention.
2/ In a classified briefing to Senators this week (that contained scant secret info), Sec. Rubio and Sec. Hegseth told us that the military strikes in the Caribbean were a counter-drug mission, NOT designed to overthrow the Venezuelan government. thehill.com/homenews/senat…
3/ That made no sense. The drug killing Americans is fentanyl. There's NO fentanyl coming from Venezuela. Venezuela exports cocaine and 90% of it goes to Europe, not the U.S.!

So why spend billions to stop cocaine from going to Europe? nbcnews.com/news/military/…
Read 6 tweets
Nov 19, 2025
Why do Democrats raise money for future elections that may not happen? Our priority needs to be protecting democracy - NOW.

So now I raise money and give it out to citizen led groups - about $1 million so far.

1/ An update on the groups we've funded:
chrismurphy.com/american-mobil…
2/ We funded Pennsylvania's student-led Project 26. They just hosted a day of action and food drive at 6 college campuses encouraging students to contact their members of Congress to ask them to lower their costs and revive Trump's dead economy. Image
Image
3/ This year @DownHome_NC - a group we funded to organize rural voters in North Carolina against Trump's cost increases - reached 52,676 (WOW!) voters no one else was able to reach across North Carolina, mainly by knocking on people's doors. downhomenc.org
Read 5 tweets
Nov 3, 2025
It's been a few days since Trump announced his "deal" with Xi. It's now clear that Trump got fleeced. America gave up lots and got nothing.

It's a story you should know bc few things matter more than the U.S.-China relationship.

1/ So here's a🧵
nytimes.com/2025/10/30/wor…
2/ First, let's remember how this started. Trump rolls into office proclaiming that China is stealing U.S. manufacturing jobs and he's going to put tariffs on Chinese goods in order to force China to play by trade rules and bring jobs back to the U.S..
3/ So where were are we at going into the Trump-Xi meeting? The U.S. put tariffs on Chinese goods. The cost to an Americans family of Trump's tariffs have been about $3800 so far this year. Just devastating.

Trump was threatening more restrictions.
budgetlab.yale.edu/research/where…
Read 10 tweets
Oct 22, 2025
Trump's supporters say we call his policies "racist" too casually.

But let me tell the story of a new policy - about to be unveiled - that is racist on its face.

1/ A short thread on Trump's reported new "whites only" refugee policy. It's truly vile.
nytimes.com/2025/10/15/us/…
2/ We began formally accepting refugees in the aftermath of WWII. Since then, we’ve provided lifesaving shelter for millions displaced by persecution and war, many targeted for their faith.

In modern times, President Reagan saved the most refugees, admitting around 210,000.
3/ Trump plans to drastically slash the numbers of refugees admitted.

But it gets worse. The new policy reportedly will effectively allow only white foreigners to qualify. If you're not white, you get turned away.

It's unreal - like we're back in Jim Crow days.
Read 6 tweets
Oct 14, 2025
Senate is back in session Tuesday.

1/ So a quick 🧵on where things are at on the shutdown.

You get a lot of propaganda and spin thrown at you, so I want to give you the real, behind-the-scenes tea.
2/ Democrats aren't going to vote for a budget that throws millions off health care and funds Trump's growing totalitarianism. At least I'm not.

Why work so hard to get to the Senate if you don't use your power to fight for what you believe in? Especially at a time like this.
3/ The Senate keeps voting on 2 bills to reopen.

1. The GOP bill - it raises premiums on 22m Americans and lets Trump keep acting illegally.

2. The Dem bill - it stops the premium increases and checks Trump's illegality.

Each time, neither bill gets the necessary 60 votes.
Read 8 tweets

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