Dem Sen. Murphy: Biden 'Depressing Moral Authority' of US

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., warned the Biden administration and Ukraine of the potential negative consequences of using cluster bombs in the war against Russia.

Administration officials have said the U.S. will provide cluster munitions to Ukraine as part of a new military aid package.

Cluster bombs contain multiple explosive submunitions. Critics of clusters say the bombs pose a risk because "dud" submunitions could harm civilians long after a conflict ends.

Murphy tweeted Monday that although "there is a real moral difference between Russia using high failure rate cluster bombs on foreign soil and Ukraine using low failure rate bombs to defend their own country," writing that the transfer "isn't worth it."

Murphy then tweeted reasons to support his stance:

• "Ukraine needs to maintain both a practical and moral advantage in this war. The ability to rally the world against Russia gets harder if our war efforts start to fudge ethical lines."
• "The future of war is very scary. The U.S. is going to need to lead multilateral efforts to control new weapons technologies — like AI [artificial intelligence] weapons systems and small nukes. Our ability to lead those efforts is possibly compromised when we waive our own rules on cluster bombs."
• "We need to play the long game. And depressing the moral authority of both Ukraine and the United States in the fight against war crimes and dangerous weapons technologies has potentially serious consequences."

Murphy said the Biden administration "has done a good job mitigating the possible future impact of unexploded bombs. I'm not as worried about that problem. And I also think Biden was in a tough spot — Ukraine needs ammunition."

With President Joe Biden in Europe and on his way to attend a meeting with NATO members this week in Lithuania, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said Biden must "hold their feet to the fire" about meeting their financial obligations toward the alliance and in helping Ukraine's fight against their Russian invaders, because the U.S. "cannot shoulder this burden alone — nor should we."

However, unlike Murphy, Barrasso said he approved of Biden's agreement to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, as "that should have happened long ago."

"Russia has been using those for a long time," Barrasso said on "Fox News Sunday." "There is so much delay in the activity of this administration in ultimately getting to Ukraine what they need, but it is taking too long."

• Blaine Holt to Newsmax: Biden Wrong to Say US 'Low' on Ammunition
• RFK Jr. Criticizes Biden for Sending Cluster Munitions to Ukraine