WASHINGTON–U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Sunday joined NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker to discuss President Trump’s disastrous Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Murphy slammed Trump’s weak leadership and failure to secure any concessions from Putin after legitimizing the war criminal on the international stage. Murphy also discussed Trump’s federal takeover of Washington D.C. as an attempt to distract from growing backlash over the Epstein scandal and the One Big Beautiful Bill’s devastating impact on healthcare cost and access for millions of Americans.

Murphy blasted Trump for humiliating the United States and handing Putin a completely one-sided victory at the Alaska summit: “That meeting was a disaster, it was an embarrassment for the United States. It was a failure. Putin got everything he wanted. I mean, first of all, he wanted that photo-op. He wanted to be absolved of his war crimes in front of the world. He was invited to the United States. War criminals are not normally invited to the United States of America. He is intentionally murdering civilians, he’s kidnapping children, and now he got to stand next to the President of the United States - legitimized in the view of the world. Second, he didn’t have to give up anything. Nothing! President Trump said he wanted a ceasefire, it appears a ceasefire wasn’t even seriously discussed. And then third: there’s no consequences. Trump said, “If I don't get a ceasefire, Putin’s going to pay a price.” And then he walked out of that meeting saying, “I didn’t get a ceasefire, I didn’t get a peace deal, and I’m not even considering sanctions.”… And so, Putin walks away with this photo-op, with zero commitments made, and zero consequences. What a great day for Russia.”

Asked whether Ukraine should have to cede territory to bring an end to Putin’s war, Murphy responded: “That question is up to the Ukrainian people and President Zelenskyy. And if they want to enter into that negotiation, the United States should support them. The only way they would do that is if they had that security guarantee from the United States. So that has to be a conversation that is probably brokered by the United States. But it is a direct conversation between Ukraine and Russia. And the only way Ukraine would even consider that is a realistic threat that the war would continue and the United States would continue to get Ukraine’s back with additional weapons if those negotiations fell apart. So long as Putin knows that the flow of weapons is about to end from the United States to Ukraine, there is zero incentive for Russia actually to come down and sit legitimately and realistically at the negotiating table with Ukraine.”

Arguing that Trump’s DC takeover is a blatant distraction from Trump’s increasingly unpopular policies and a fast-unraveling Epstein scandal, Murphy said: “What’s happening here in Washington D.C. is just a stunt. Donald Trump didn’t like the fact that the walls were closing in on him, that his own base was questioning why he wouldn’t release the Epstein files, why he was protecting very powerful people. He didn’t want to talk anymore about the fact that our healthcare system was about to collapse because of the cuts that they have made, that premiums are about to go up by 75 percent on Americans. And so, true to form, he just decided to create a new news cycle… He’s just trying to distract from the stories he doesn’t want Americans to be talking about.”