Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy warns of Trump's 'assault on the Constitution'

In an interview on ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday, Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy warned of an "assault on the Constitution" under President Donald Trump.

"I think this is the most serious constitutional crisis the country has faced, certainly since Watergate," Murphy said. "The president is attempting to seize control of power, and for corrupt purposes."

Pointing to the Trump administration's efforts to overhaul the federal government, including by freezing foreign aid programs under the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Murphy said the country is in the midst of a "red-alert moment" and argued that Trump is ushering in "the billionaire takeover of government."

Trump and Elon Musk, the billionaire leader of the new Department of Government Efficiency, have called for a shuttering of USAID, with Trump posting on social media, "CLOSE IT DOWN!"

"The president wants to be able to decide how and where money is spent so that he can reward his political friends, he can punish his political enemies," Murphy said. "That is the evisceration of democracy."

"You stand that next to the wholesale endorsement of political violence with the pardons given to every single Jan. 6 rioter -- including the most violent, who beat police officers over the head with baseball bats -- and you can see what he's trying to do here," Murphy continued. "He is trying to crush his opposition by making them afraid of losing federal funding, by making them afraid of physical violence."

Murphy accused Musk of being motivated to shutter USAID in order to promote his own business interests.

"It makes America much less safe around the world, but it helps China. USAID is a thorn in the side of the Chinese government," Murphy said. "Elon Musk has many major business interests at stake inside Beijing, and so making Beijing happy is going to accrue to the financial benefit of Elon Musk and many billionaires who outsource work to China."

Murphy said it amounted to an "assault on the Constitution in order to serve the billionaire class" that will require "full scale opposition."

"You can't just rely on the courts," he said. "Ultimately, you've got to bring the American public into this conversation, because we need our Republican colleagues in the House and in the Senate, ultimately, to put a stop to this. You cannot just rely on the court system when the challenge to the Constitution and the billionaire takeover is so acute and so urgent."

Murphy also pushed back against Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who said on the Puck podcast "Somebody's Gotta Win" last week that Democrats need to tone down their rhetoric, saying Americans are "not going to pay attention" if Democrats "keep yelling" and using "the most severe kinds of language."

"I don't agree. I'm not going to calm down," Murphy said. "This is a fundamental corruption, and democracies don't last forever, and what those who are trying to destroy democracies want is for everyone to stay quiet, for everyone to believe that the moment isn't urgent."