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Transcript: Sen. Chris Murphy on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Oct. 11, 2026

2026-10-11T12:37:28-0400 / CBS News

The following is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Oct. 11, 2026.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And we’re joined now by Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy. Good morning–

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY: Good morning–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –Good to have you here in person. Yesterday there were 309 people injured, 12 killed, including one American, in this attack on the airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. President Trump said the U.S. both may join strikes, but also that the U.S. is talking to the Houthis, that’s the Iran-backed group that carried out this strike. Do you support retaliation? And do our Saudi partners who you were just visiting, deserve the American support?

SEN. MURPHY: Yeah, I was in that airport the day before, having visited the Saudis and the Qataris, who are trying to negotiate an end to the war. I mean, listen, what I saw on the ground is a war that is spiraling out of control. You have a dozen dead, a full blown new war between the Houthis in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. You have the Iranians restarting their missile programs. They never- we never eliminated their drone program. They’re restarting a nuclear program. Gas prices are at $6 in some states.–

MARGARET BRENNAN: They are restarting their nuclear program?–

SEN.MURPHY: There’s evidence that it- one of the primary sites in which we think they are digging underground, they are restarting nuclear research activities, gas prices, diesel prices, food prices through the roof, 20 Americans dead, $100 billion spent. If the Trump administration was trying to lose this war, they couldn’t do worse than they are doing. This is a humiliation to the United States. The war is getting bigger and more dangerous, not smaller and more limited. and it’s an advertisement for every single member of the House and the Senate who voted for this war, who continues to support this war, to be booted out of office this November.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But in regard to this particular strike, the U.S. has not committed to retaliating on our partners, the Saudis behalf. Do you think that that would be appropriate?

SEN. MURPHY: No, I don’t think the United States should go to war in Yemen. I mean, this administration is absolutely incompetent in war making. And so, just as we have made the Middle East worse and more chaotic by getting involved in a war against Iran, we would simply escalate and make the situation even more dangerous if we then went to war not only with Iran, but with the Houthis in Yemen as well.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, in many ways, there’s this argument about U.S. credibility in the region and continued presence. The Congressional Budget Office says it’s unable to estimate the cost of damage to American bases because the Pentagon hasn’t provided the information, and the extent of rebuilding is unclear. The extent is unclear because the intent is unclear. And some Democrats have even said they want to shrink the U.S. presence. I believe you also favor drawing down the U.S. military presence. Are you going to vote to rebuild the installations you saw that were damaged?

SEN. MURPHY: Well, I didn’t see any installations. I mean, that’s the issue is that we have no–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –I thought you saw the embassy, that was–

SEN. MURPHY: –Well, I saw the embassy, but the most expensive rebuild would be of the naval base in Bahrain and our air base in Qatar. And right now, members of Congress are being denied the ability to see the damage at these bases. Because there is a cover up underway, there is a cover up underway to try to hide from the American public the cost of this war and the debacle that it has caused in the region. So how could we assess whether we want to rebuild these facilities, if the administration is denying us the ability to see them, or even to understand the scope of the damage? I mean, the- the blockage of basic congressional oversight responsibilities here is absolutely egregious.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You said that you had evidence shared with you of possible rebuilding of Iran’s nuclear program. Was that a classified briefing? Was that a briefing that the administration did share with you?

SEN. MURPHY: No, that’s open source reporting–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –okay–

SEN. MURPHY: –that the Iranians are potentially starting to dig deeper to rebuild some of the capacity–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –Pickaxe Moun–

SEN. MURPHY: at Pickaxe Mountain.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, because the Pentagon does say they need additional funds for the war we are currently in, with Iran. How do you balance the political statement and the intent to end it against the question of whether we are supporting and protecting our people who are still in the region?

SEN. MURPHY: Yeah, the best way to support our troops and our people in the region is to end this war, to unilaterally end American hostilities, and to frankly, ask our partners in the region to do the work of reopening the strait and reopening the Red Sea. The reality is, so long as the potential continues for–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –just walk away.–

SEN. MURPHY: –Well, the president is saying that he is considering after the election, going back to war with Iran. And so, of course, Iran’s response to that is going to be an escalation of the war. The president needs to bring this war to an end, and that will be the quickest way that the waterways will be reopened. Again, this is a president who is showing, just humiliating levels of incompetence in war making and escalation is just going to bring more misery for the American taxpayers and for people who live in that region.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Just to put a fine point on it, I mean, the Iranians want the U.S. to withdraw from the region. Do you favor a drawdown of U.S. troops from the region?

SEN. MURPHY: Well, I think the United States is always going to have to have a presence in that region. But let’s just be honest, we don’t have a naval base any longer in Bahrain. We don’t have an effective base in Qatar because minutes into the war, the Iranians took those bases out. So at the very least, if we’re going to rebuild any capacity in that region, we’re going to have to find a way to protect it. Donald Trump was so fundamentally unprepared for this war that within days of the war starting, our billion-dollar air bases and naval bases in the region were obliterated by the Iranians. Every single American should be furious about that. Not just because Americans died but because their taxpayer dollars at scale were wasted. And so, yes, we should reconsider whether we should rebuild them if we can’t protect them. And this president is incapable of protecting our people in the Middle East.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The Pentagon did disclose yesterday 20 fatalities, American fatalities.–

SEN. MURPHY: Extraordinary.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you a bit about politics. Our CBS polling shows Republicans, they do have perhaps a turnout problem compared to Democrats. But when it comes to perception, 58% of registered voters polled by CBS say they view the Democratic Party as weak. What is the affirmative Democratic message other than we’re not Trump?

SEN. MURPHY: Well, I mean, we are in the middle of a war that is a disaster for the American people. I mean, people can’t afford food. They can’t afford to fill their gas tanks, farms are going bankrupt in- the Middle East at a record rate. So let’s just be honest, the most important thing that the American people are thinking about right now is getting these people out of power, because this has been a disaster for the world, for America’s reputation and for the economy. But yes, I think we need to be bold in our ideas and our proposals for how we’re going to fix this mess. And so we should promise that if we win this election, we are not going to fund this war. Right? We’re not going to approve money for the Department of Defense without a commitment from the Trump administration that this war ends. We’re going to take on this corruption, not just Trump’s corruption, but the entire corruption of the federal government. If you elect us, we’re going to work to get billionaire and corporate and anonymous money out of politics. To the extent that people see us as weak, I think historically it’s been because our ideas haven’t been big enough, our tactics haven’t been bold enough. And yes, in the closing days of this campaign, we can promise people, if you elect us, we are going to take on his corruption. We are going to end this war. And that supplemented with the higher prices and the debacle of the war with Iran, I think could result in a landslide.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You’re hitting the trail, as I understand it, North Carolina, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, you’re going to help out one of our other guests in New Hampshire. But let me ask you about the Florida decision. The Senate candidate, Angie Nixon there has aligned herself with democratic socialists over the summer. Does that give you pause at all? Or when you talk about big ideas, is that the kind of big idea you want to endorse?

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I also think we should just be a big tent, right? There’s- I think, a pretty big difference between Chris Pappas in New Hampshire and Angie Nixon in Florida. And if we want to win elections, we should welcome people who have a diverse set of ideas into the party. The people–

SEN. MURPHY: –But then you’ve got to govern–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –The people of Florida will decide right, right whether they want Angie Nixon or whether they want Senator Moody, who has basically said nothing about the growing massive corruption scandals in this administration. But as a party, I think we should welcome a lot of different people with a lot of different ideas in and then let the voters decide.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator Murphy, thank you for your time today.

SEN. MURPHY: Appreciate it.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Face the Nation will be back in a minute. Stay with us.