Sen. Chris Murphy says Trump engaged in a 'deliberate campaign' to 'make violence more likely in this country’

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., asserted that President Donald Trump is engaged in a "dizzying campaign to increase violence" in the United States, saying that the president is "knowingly restoring gun rights to dangerous people" and cutting off "necessary mental health resources" to combat gun violence. At another point, he called it a "pretty deliberate campaign to try to make violence more likely in this country." 

During a discussion about the deadly shooting at Brown University this weekend, Murphy spoke with CNN’s Dana Bash on "State of the Nation" Sunday, addressing the incident and the broader issue of gun violence.

"What we know is that stronger [gun] laws do work. And since we passed that bill in 2022, the first bill in 30 years that strengthens the nation’s gun laws, gun violence rates and mass shooting rates have come down in this country. But this is not shocking because, over the last year, President Trump has been engaged in a dizzying campaign to increase violence in this country," Murphy said. "He is restoring gun rights to felons and people who have lost their ability to buy guns."

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Murphy argued that the Trump administration is cutting millions of dollars of federal grants for certain "gun violence prevention programs," the majority of which had been instituted under the Biden administration's Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), passed in 2022. He argued that these actions taken by the president show that Trump has deliberately invited more violence to take place in the country.

"He has been engaged in a pretty deliberate campaign to try to make violence more likely in this country," Murphy told Bash. "And I think you’re unfortunately going to see the results of that on the streets of America."

The host pushed back on Murphy's claim, saying, "That’s a pretty big statement. He’s in a campaign to make violence more likely."

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"Of course," the senator responded. "I mean, he’s knowingly restoring gun rights to dangerous people. He is cutting off grants that have bipartisan support to try to interrupt violence in our cities or to try to get necessary mental health resources to families and children in need. The evidence tells you that when you stop funding mental health, when you stop funding community anti-gun violence programs, when you give gun rights back to dangerous people, you are going to have an increase in violence that is knowable and that is foreseeable."

When reached for comment by Fox News Digital, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson responded: "Before spreading these lies, Chris Murphy should take a look in the mirror. Chris and his colleagues have regularly used rhetoric meant to incite their followers to violence, including smearing ICE officers as Nazis and calling their political opponents fascists." 

She continued, "Assaults against ICE officers have skyrocketed and Charlie Kirk was tragically assassinated earlier this year, not to mention the other violent riots that leftists have engaged in. The Violent Left is a problem whether Chris admits it or not."

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On Saturday, at least two students were killed, and nine other students were wounded in a mass shooting Saturday at Brown University in Rhode Island.

School officials confirmed the shooting took place at about 4 p.m. inside a classroom in the Barus & Holley engineering building on Hope Street.

A person of interest in their 30s was taken into custody early Sunday morning, officials said during a press conference. Police did not immediately provide additional details about the individual.

Fox News' Alexandra Koch, Adriana James-Rodil, Andrea Margolis and Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.