Transcript: Sen. Chris Murphy on

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--

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?

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?

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?

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: 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--

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.

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.

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

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?

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?