Sen Murphy’s Message to Packed Town Hall in Stamford: “Mobilize”

US Senator from (D-CT) Chris Murphy filled Westhill High School’s auditorium Friday night for a town hall meeting where he vowed to keep up his fight against the agenda of President Donald Trump.

He has emerged as a prominent Democratic opposition voice, outspoken on the US Senate floor and on television, and popping up frequently on social media.

The Senator, having assumed office in 2013, is in his third term. He was introduced Friday night by Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons who described the first 67 days of the Trump administration as devastating.

“It’s caused a range of emotions in all of us from what the Trump administration is doing to target immigrants, and roll back civil rights and LGBTQ rights, and to target DEI and climate, and gut social service programs and attack the institutions we hold dear,” she said.

But Mayor Simmons was encouraged by the packed auditorium.

She described Murphy as “on the front lines challenging Trump administration’s Draconian actions and successfully blocking a lot of the madness.”

Murphy said Trump was attempting to transition American democracy to an oligarchy, “where a handful of rich money connected elites rule and organize government effectively to steal from the people.”

He said the Republicans in DC were hoping to pass a budget resolution, the so-called “reconciliation” bill, with a majority vote but didn’t need any Democrats to pass it.

He described the proposed resolution as the biggest, most massive transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to the rich in the history of the country.

He said Republicans were proposing a one-for-one swap of $1.1 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% with $1.1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, the program that insures 24% of Americans.

“In Connecticut, it’s HUSKY,” he said. “And devastating cuts to food stamps, the program that provides food assistance mainly to children, but to low income families as well.”

“The theft, that is the definition of an oligarchy,” he said. “But that is super unpopular….How do you do something that is deeply unpopular? You try to crush dissent. You try to destroy the accountability structure.”

“You can’t get away with that if people have the right to stand up and protest,” he said.

Murphy said it was no coincidence that when Elon Musk joined the White House that he went first after the agencies that stood in the way of his business interests – starting with the National Labor Relations Board, where there were multiple complaints against his (Tesla), and to the NTSB and to its agency that was standing in the way of him more quickly rolling out his self-driving cars.

Murphy said the tactic of “crushing dissent” included everything from the pardoning of Jan 6 protesters and the FCC going after radio stations owned by Democrats, to the way the US Attorney in DC was threatening to lock  people up because they interfered with Elon Musk’s operations at DOGE, to targeted attempts to harass law firms that represent Democrats, or universities where dissent and protest happens, or journalists who don’t use the words the administration wants them to use.

The Senator said there were three main current targets of Donald Trump: higher education, legal firms and the media.

Still, he said Friday’s turnout made him optimistic because mass mobilization was a powerful tool, though he said ultimately it may require not thousands of people, but hundreds of thousands of people.

Murphy said he was encouraged by the 1200 RSVPs  within 24 hours for the Stamford event and auditorium being full to capacity.

“We didn’t even advertise this town hall,” he said.

Repeatedly, Murphy returned to his theme of mass mobilization as a tool.

“Once you get 3% of the population that is willing to mobilize, there is lots of history that shows that becomes enough to stop the arrest of democracy. There is plenty of history to show that mass mobilization works.”

Murphy said the court system was another tool to protect democracy.

“Most of what they’re doing is wildly illegal. Donald Trump complains that you have this activist judiciary that is every single day ruling that something he is doing is unconstitutional,” he said. “That is not because the judiciary is acting irregularly, but because he is doing something every single day that is unconstitutional.”

Murphy the court system would help Democracy survive the moment.

He said the country had not yet reached a “5-alarm Constitutional crisis,” as the president had not yet blatantly ignored a Supreme Court ruling, but should that happen, millions of people might have to engage in civil disobedience.

Murphy urged the citizens to form a national political movement like the one that resulted in sweeping gun legislation in 2022.

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Murphy said there had been a stunning reduction in gun violence in the country after the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was signed into law.

He said the movement grew after the shootings of children in 2012 at Sandy Hook in Connecticut, and came to a head after shootings of more children in Uvalde, Texas in 2022, and that the legislation was the first significant federal gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years.

The bill did not just change gun laws, but funded mental health resources, school counselors and local anti-gun violence programs.

“It was a comprehensive bill with $35 worth of investments, and gun violence rates in this country started immediately plummeting,” Murphy said. “A 40% reduction in mass shootings in the last year. It’s a sign that this democracy, however low people’s confidence in it is, still can work.”

“Nationally, gun violence numbers are down 20-30%, in Hartford they’re down 50%.”

“You are healthy enough, safe and secure enough that you can play a role in the defense of this 250-year-old experiment,” he said. “The whole world is watching.”

Murphy took questions on a range of topics, including free speech and students who are being “disappeared” by ICE for their first amendment views on Palestine.

“Hopefully you saw the video I put out about Mahmoud Khalil, defending the right of anyone legally here in the US to be able to protest the government,” he said. “We have seen the series of disappearances – this is what dictators do. They take people who are protesting them and disappear you to a place you can’t be found by your loved ones.”

He said the point was not whether people disagreed vehemently with Mahmoud Khalil.

“That’s up to you, but in this country we don’t criminalize speech. We don’t lock you up.”

He said the US Constitution applied to people whether they were natural born citizens, on student visas, or were tourist.

“If you think this doesn’t matter to you because you are not here on a student visa, because you are a citizen – just wait!” he warned. “They first went after a Palestinian immigrant because they thought people would look the other way because the person is not like you or because you disagree with the speech, then ultimately it will be you.”

Asked by Doug Kramer from Stamford about Elon Musk and his Dept of Government Efficiency’s mass firings, Murphy said while there may be inefficiences in government, conducting mass firings did not target them.

“They are literally using an AI algorithm to find anybody who is vulnerable to being fired. That’s why they are firing anybody who is a probationary employee because there is a slightly stronger case that you can be let go. Probationary employees are everybody that has been hired recently. That has nothing to do with whether you are efficient or not.”

Also he said, technically anybody who is recently promoted is considered probationary.

“Those are actually the best people,” he said. “This has nothing to do with making the government more efficient.”

There was a trans woman who said people in her community had moved from states including Texas and Florida to Connecticut to feel safe and for health care, but were now so fearful they might “disappear” that they were were thinking about moving out of the country.

A woman who counsels trans youth and said she is awake at night because of their high self harm and suicide rates.

Murphy said he tried to speak often about the rights of the queer and trans community to let them know they are supported, but also because he is aware they were being used as a “distraction.”

A gentleman in a red Make America Great Again hat drew a round of boo’s when he said, “Elon Musk is not the danger to this country. You and your party are. I was struck by that when I tried to use the dumb gender neutral bathroom outside.”

“Your party fanatical views but none so deranged as the idea that boys are girls and girls are boys,” he said. “What will you do to protect the children of this country from child abusers disguised as doctors from mutilating people?” he asked.

The crowd erupted with applause when Murphy responded, “There is nothing to fear from transgender and gay children in this country.”

“I refuse to live in a world in which we are told to believe that the biggest threats we face are non-bindary, transgender kids and drag shows. This is all an attempt to distract us.”

The last comment was from a grade school age girl, Charlotte, who said she was worried that free lunch in public school would end and that other children would go hungry or be embarrassed to tell their teacher or the lunch lady.

Murphy stepped down off the platform and said he appreciated the girl’s concern and that he was concerned too. He said he feared schools would be closed and the president’s very wealthy hedge fund friends would buy them for themselves.

“That was the most beautiful question because what you said is that you’re thinking of other kids. And kids who might not have it as good as you. We exist in this world to help other people, don’t you think?” Murphy asked.

“I think why all these people are here is they want to live in a world where we have a government that looks out for everybody, regardless of what race you are, what religion you are, or how much money you have.”

Murphy said he hoped Charlotte’s question would inspire people to work a little bit harder.