Chris Murphy: Dems need to turn attention back to domestic policy agenda

Sen. Chris Murphy said Thursday that now with a newly named special counsel in the Russia investigation, the Democrats need to bring some focus back to domestic policy.

“We haven’t been part of the major policy discussions in the Senate about tax reform or health care reform. My worry, frankly, is that this has been cloud cover for a process that has continued specifically on the issue of repealing the Affordable Care Act,” Mr. Murphy, Connecticut Democrat, said on MSNBC.

“Republicans have continued to meet to try to present a bill before the Senate that potentially strips health care away from 24 million Americans. That has been able to happen without a lot of big public questions being asked because of this concern and obsession about this big unfolding story with Russia,” he said.

“We’re going to have to shift some of this back to public policy because that agenda, I don’t think, has stopped while this story has moved very quickly in the past couple of days,” Mr. Murphy said.

The senator also said he isn’t sure a person with a political background, like former Sen. Joe Lieberman, should be a contender for the FBI director post.

“I hold Sen. Lieberman’s seat. He’s no pushover,” Mr. Murphy said. “I think the question here is whether you want someone with a political pedigree or you want someone that has a law enforcement pedigree, and I think there’s a lot of people on both sides of the aisle that doesn’t want someone from the political realm.”