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Sen. Murphy Ends His Second Walk Across Connecticut

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy is greeted by some supporters at the Danbury War Memorial on Thursday at the end of his five-day, 100-mile walk across Connecticut.
Ebong Udoma
/
WSHU
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy is greeted by some supporters at the Danbury War Memorial on Thursday at the end of his five-day, 100-mile walk across Connecticut.

Connecticut U.S. Senator Chris Murphy completed a five-day, 100-mile walk across the state in Danbury on Thursday. The Democrat says most people along the walk expressed concerns about President Donald Trump’s response to Charlottesville, Va.

Murphy says Trump’s response to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville was constantly brought up by Connecticut residents.

“The fact that we have a commander-in-chief who will not unconditionally condemn white supremacist and neo-Nazis and in fact defends them, is an abomination, it’s sickening. And that was a common thread for people that I met across the state.”

Murphy says healthcare is the other issue that Connecticut residents are very concerned about. He says the Trump administration is not doing Americans any favors by announcing that it will continue funding for the Affordable Care Act on a month-by-month basis.

“It is no victory for the Trump administration to say that they are going to pay insurers for one month. No insurer is going to stay in these exchanges if they are only getting guarantees of payment 30 days at a time. Donald Trump is trying to hurt Americas by destroying our healthcare system as punishment to Democrats and Republicans who wouldn’t vote on a bill that nobody liked. And everybody should be outraged by that.”

He says senators are working on legislation to change that.

“The president technically right now has the discretion to not pay insurers. We could pass legislation to take that away from him to make payments automatic. And Republicans, including Senator McConnell, have said they want to do that. So let’s do it as soon as possible.”

Murphy began his journey in Killingly on Sunday morning. He ended in Danbury after walking more than 100 miles through 22 towns. Murphy held a series of town halls along the route. 

Copyright 2017 WSHU

As WSHU Public Radio’s award-winning senior political reporter, Ebong Udoma draws on his extensive tenure to delve deep into state politics during a major election year. In addition to providing long-form reports and features for WSHU, he regularly contributes spot news to NPR, and has worked at the NPR National News Desk as part of NPR’s diversity initiative.

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