Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) is refusing to apologize for a post he published on X seemingly showing support for Iran after a shipping journal account posted a story — which the government has denied — saying 26 Iranian ships have slipped through the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. A reporter confronted Murphy about the controversial post that has earned him a significant amount of backlash.
The reporter asked Murphy if he planned on removing the post. “Twitter has become kind of a cesspool,” the Connecticut Democrat responded. “I should probably give up on sarcasm on Twitter.” He then reiterated his thoughts about Operation Epic Fury, the war effort in Iran to prevent the Middle Eastern country from having the capacity to build a nuclear bomb.
“Obviously, anybody that’s seen anything that I’ve said about Trump’s war knows that I think it’s bungled mismanagement as quickly as possible,” he said. He then complained about people not perceiving his comment as sarcasm on social media, saying, “But sarcasm is not something, I guess, that’s allowed on Twitter.”
The reporter asked him if he regretted making the post or would take it down due to the backlash. “I mean, I guess I just have to be more careful about sarcasm on Twitter,” he concluded. The original post that started the controversy featured a post from Lloyd’s List concerning the Iranian ships with a single word from Murphy: “Awesome.”
According to Fox News, Murphy has claimed he meant the post sarcastically, but many conservatives, both in Congress and out, believe he was celebrating the ships slipping past the U.S. “OK Twitter, I can’t believe I need to clarify this, but obviously Trump’s bungled mismanagement of this war is not ‘awesome’,” Murphy wrote in a follow-up post.
The White House responded to Murphy’s post on the White House Rapid Response account, accusing the Connecticut senator of rooting for Iran over the United States. “You’re a loser, Chris. You were literally cheering for the enemy—gleefully regurgitating Iranian propaganda to undermine your own country’s interests,” the statement said.
“It’s an insult to the American heroes very effectively enforcing the blockade. Moron,” it concluded. The report stated that the blockade is primarily being enforced by U.S. naval and air power located in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. The goal of the blockade is to intercept vessels after they clear the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most critical shipping points in the world.
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“There were some reports overnight indicating that 26 vessels from Iran’s shadow fleet were able to make it past the U.S. Blockade. There is no evidence of that, and despite what one Democratic senator talked about, there is a concerted effort by the United States to ensure that any vessels that coming from Iranian ports are turned around,” Fox News Chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst told “Fox & Friends,” while speaking about Murphy’s post.
Yingst said the posts about the ships was Iranian propaganda. “And the shadow fleet that the senator is talking about is used to directly fund Iranian proxies across the Middle East, including Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah, who are directly responsible for killing US citizens,” he explained. “And so the shadow of fleet is a very serious problem. It is not getting past the US blockade, according to all reports and information that we have from the region.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video