Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Danger?
TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION. I'm Jake Tapper. Here with us is Democratic Senator from Connecticut Chris Murphy. He's also a member of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate. Senator, President Trump is expected to announce next week that he's going to -- or this week, rather, that he's going to decertify the international nuclear deal with Iran. The president offered a preview of his thinking earlier last week. Take a listen.</s>TRUMP: The Iranian regime supports terrorism and exports violence, bloodshed and chaos across the Middle East. That is why we must put an end to Iran's continued aggression and nuclear ambitions. They have not lived up to the spirit of their agreement.</s>TAPPER: On the issues President Trump raised, he's right. Iran does support exporting terrorism. It does export violence across the Middle East. Was it a mistake on the part of the Obama administration to not require that Iran stop its support for terrorist groups as part of this deal?</s>MURPHY: Absolutely not. The president is right that there are all sorts of other misbehaviors of Iran in the region. But what we came to the conclusion -- we came to the conclusion that those behaviors would be much more dangerous if Iran was a nuclear weapons country. And so we made a decision to take away from Iran a path to a nuclear weapon. And the reality is, the president is about to impose on himself and this country a dramatic self-inflicted wound, because by pulling out of this agreement, Iran will go back on to a path to develop a nuclear weapon. The other partners that were with us on sanctions over the last decade will not reimpose them. And Iran will look like the victim in this situation. They will get everything they want. They will be able to restart their nuclear program. They will continue to get sanctions relief, and they will look like the aggrieved party. And it is just absolute fantasy to think that this president is going to be able to get them back to the negotiating table, when they ultimately will get everything that they want if we were going to -- if we ended up violating this agreement.</s>TAPPER: Let's turn to Harvey Weinstein. He's the Oscar-winning producer and major Democratic donor who took a leave of absence from The Weinstein Company this week after it was revealed in "The New York Times" that he has quietly settled at least eight sexual harassment complaints over three decades. A variety of Democratic senators are returning contributions from him. You have not gotten any contributions from him, I should note. But a variety of Democrats are returning them or giving them to charity. But the Democratic National Committee, the DSCC, the Senate arm, and the DCCC, the congressional arm, the House arm, are not giving all the Weinstein money back. Do you think that all of that Weinstein money -- we're talking here about more than $400,000 -- needs to be returned or donated to charity by all of the arms of the Democratic Party?</s>MURPHY: Yes, I think that probably makes sense. I mean, this is a pretty bad guy who did some really awful things. And, you know, if people need for that money to be returned in order to make it clear that the entities that received them want nothing to do with him and his behavior, then it is probably a smart move. But let's be honest. We take tens of thousands of contributions. I don't require a background check for -- to contribute to my campaign. And so there are probably lots of people with unsavory backgrounds and pasts who have given to both Democrats and Republicans. But this was a high-profile individual who did some truly awful things, and people that took money from him should probably give it back.</s>TAPPER: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is on thin ice this week, according to sources in the administration, after we all learned that he referred to President Trump in a private meeting as a moron. By all accounts, Tillerson is pushing for President Trump to stay in the Paris climate agreement. He's been trying to de-escalate tensions with North Korea. He is seen by many in the foreign policy community as a moderating force. If Tillerson were to step down, are you worried about who might come next as secretary of state?</s>MURPHY: I am worried. And I think whoever would replace Secretary Tillerson would be in a no-win situation. The fact of the matter is, we have two different foreign policies in this country right now, which is catastrophic for us. We have one foreign policy that comes from the State Department and the Department of Defense. And then we have another foreign policy that comes from the president's Twitter feed. The president was undermining Secretary of State Tillerson at the exact moment that he was in China trying to negotiate with the Chinese to get tougher on the North Koreans and their nuclear weapons program. And so there is no way that you're going to unwind these big foreign policy crises if nobody knows whether the secretary of state speaks for the president. And I have a feeling that whoever replaces Tillerson would suffer the same problem, that President Trump would never give them the authority to ultimately try to speak on their own. Yes, if you have been accused of calling the president a moron, you should probably clarify that you didn't do it. But, at the same time, this problem is not going away, so long as the president has, you know, his own foreign policy through social media.</s>TAPPER: Do you think Tillerson should resign?</s>MURPHY: Again, I don't think that that solves the problem. I think the president should stop undermining the people in his administration. I think he should stop doing hurtful things to the country's national security, like telling the North Koreans that there is no diplomatic path for them to give up nuclear weapons. I have big disagreements with Secretary Tillerson. I don't think he's been a good secretary of state. But I'm not sure that there is anyone that can succeed in that position, given the just absolutely catastrophic dysfunction of this White House.</s>TAPPER: All right, Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, thank you so much. Appreciate your time.</s>MURPHY: Thanks, Jake.</s>TAPPER: President Trump issuing a cryptic warning about the calm before the storm. What could the ominous comments mean? The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee will be here to weigh in next. Stay with us.