Senate Democrat Warns Party to Stay Focused On Trump’s Budget Bill, Don’t Get Distracted By Los Angeles

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) joined MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Monday and warned his fellow Democrats to “keep their eye on the ball” and not forget President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful” budget bill amid concern of the president’s moves in Los Angeles.

Over the weekend, Trump federalized and deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles to counter anti-ICE protests, the first time a president has done so in 60 years. Many on the left have sounded the alarm on the way in which Trump gave himself the power to federalize the National Guard, arguing his declaration was not specific to California and violates states’ rights.

Murphy agreed with that and added, “It can also be true that everything that’s happened in the last seven days between the fight with Elon Musk and now the deployment of the National Guard is probably also a distraction from the main story, which is that right now, Donald Trump is trying to pass probably the most unpopular piece of legislation that he will attempt to move through Congress in his first term.”

“He’s going to throw 15 million people off their health care in order to fund a massive tax cut for the wealthy. It’s going to add $2 trillion to our deficit. We’re probably gonna head into a recession,” Murphy continued, adding:

And so I do also think he’s probably doing everything he can to try to get the entire political world to be talking about anything other than a piece of legislation that’s gonna fundamentally change this country. So yeah, we have to point out the danger of what he’s proposing to do in Los Angeles while also keeping our eye on the ball, which is a bill that’s going to transform our economy and ruin a lot of lives.

Watch the clip above.