Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said it was "a mistake" for the eight Senate Democrats who broke ranks to make a deal with Republicans to end the government shutdown without an extension on Obamacare subsidies.
"I thought it was a mistake for Democrats to give up what was real political advantage coming off the election that could have allowed us to reduce these premiums? And I thought we had a real shot to get a continuing resolution passed that would have lowered prices for people," Murphy told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
With the federal government back open, roughly 42 million people will see their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits returned, but approximately 20 million people will see their health insurance premiums skyrocket due to no compromise on extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies.
Murphy claimed that his party will "lose this democracy" if they continue to allow Republicans ‘to cleave off' Democrats.
“Democrats are going to lose this democracy if we continue to allow Republicans to cleave off, 10 or 12 or 15 of us. So we've got some hard conversations as a caucus moving forward. We can't continue to be split like this or we won't save our democracy," Murphy said.
Karl later pressed National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on whether the White House has plans to address the rising health care premiums.
"We even have a solution for this: the 'Big, Beautiful Bill.' And they took the big role to take $30 billion away for people so they couldn't have the health insurance that they needed,” Hassett said.
Hassett said President Donald Trump remains steadfast on tariffs after the White House reduced tariffs last week on some products from Latin and South American countries.
Some products that have seen price increases include coffee, ground beef and bananas, up 15%, 14% and 8%, respectively. Inflation has ticked upward for every month of Trump's term, increasing every month since May. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.3% in September and has risen 3% over the last 12 months, according to an October news release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
There currently is no inflation report for October. Meanwhile, the Labor Department will release its numbers on September hiring and unemployment on Thursday.
Here are more highlights from Murphy’s interview:
Murphy: It's both heartbreaking and totally unsurprising, the Department of Justice has just become a protection racket for Donald Trump and a witch hunt operation against his political opponents. This is why our democracy is in such peril right now, is that for the first time in our history, the Department of Justice operates in order to try to punish and lock up anybody that criticizes Donald Trump.
Murphy: It's true that Donald Trump is trying to cover up for, I think, a host of really powerful and rich people, but he's frankly not that selfless. He wouldn't be going through all of this effort to try to stop the release of these files if he wasn't seriously implicated in those files. This is most likely the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the country.
Karl: Chuck Schumer is taking a lot of heat for this. Do you still have confidence in him as the Democratic leader, and do you think he will still be the Democratic leader after the midterms?
Murphy: Well, we can't continue to operate like this in the Democratic Senate. This is not the first time that a small group of Democrats have crossed over to support a Republican measure to give Donald Trump more power. ... So certainly, when we return to Washington next week, Senator Schumer is going to have to explain to us how we're going to run the caucus differently, how we're going to be more united.
Murphy: No one wants a war with Venezuela. To the extent they are claiming it has something to do with the drug trade coming to the United States, the majority of drugs don't come through the Caribbean. They come via a land route, a land route that the president is ignoring because he is so focused on this absurd, illegal military campaign against Venezuela. So I don't think he'll find much support amongst Republicans or Democrats in this country for it.
And by the way, it's wildly illegal. A president can't start a war with a nation without a congressional authorization. It's just another sign of how out of control and how lawless this president is.
Here are more highlights from Hassett's interview:
Hassett: The prices for those goods weren't necessarily going up just because of tariffs, so --
Karl: So they might not come down
Hassett: And so, the prices will go down of course.
Karl: Because the tariffs have been taken off, right?
Hassett: Right -- well, because the supply of goods into the U.S. is going to increase.
Hassett: This is something that's being fixed fast and real incomes are up after dropping about $3,000 under Joe Biden. And so, sure, you could find a few things where the price is higher, but there's a whole bunch of stuff where the price is lower, like gasoline, like mortgage.