Sen. Chris Murphy on Monday appeared to cheer an unconfirmed report that more than two dozen Iranian ships had slipped past the U.S. maritime blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, replying on X with a single word: “awesome.” The Connecticut Democrat’s post landed as the report said at least 26 vessels from the shadow fleet had bypassed the blockade.
The comment was striking because Murphy has become one of the Senate’s most vocal critics of Israel, and his latest online reaction put him on the side of a report tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ shadow fleet. The report itself was not confirmed.
The post followed a weekend appearance in Barcelona, where Murphy spoke at the Alex Soros-backed Global Progressive Summit and said the U.S. was “in the middle of” a “totalitarian takeover.” A photo dated April 10, 2025, showed him speaking at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, underlining how quickly the senator has moved from domestic warnings to a flashpoint abroad.
Murphy’s response turned a disputed maritime claim into a political statement in a single word. That leaves the harder question not about the ships, but about the senator’s willingness to frame an unverified report involving Iran as cause for celebration.
