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Relatives mourn as a funeral ceremony is held for people killed by US-Israeli airstrikes

Relatives mourn as a funeral ceremony is held for people killed by US-Israeli airstrikes in Tehran, Iran on March 9, 2026.

(Photo by Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)

'This Is Just Not How the Human Race Should Operate,' Says US Senator of Trump Threat

"Would you be able to live with yourself," asked Sen. Chris Murphy, "if you threatened your neighbor's child with murder in order to get your neighbor to behave the way you wanted?"

US Sen. Chris Murphy said Tuesday that President Donald Trump's genocidal threat to wipe Iran off the map doesn't just run afoul of domestic and international legal statutes—it is, the Democratic lawmaker argued, "fundamentally evil."

"This is a war crime, what the president is proposing," Murphy (Conn.) said in a two-minute video posted to social media after Trump threatened to destroy the "whole civilization" of Iran if it doesn't reach a deal with the US to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

"That is pure evil," the senator said of Trump's threat, which the president issued on his Truth Social platform. "But even if he doesn't go through with it, even if Iran agrees to a deal, this is just not how the human race should operate—compelling others' behavior under the threat of murder of innocent people."

"Would you be able to live with yourself," asked Murphy, "if you threatened your neighbor's child with murder in order to get your neighbor to behave the way you wanted?"

Watch:

Trump's threat to escalate his illegal assault by waging total war on Iranian society sparked a wave of condemnations from lawmakers, legal scholars, and human rights advocates who demanded immediate deescalation and a lasting end to the conflict. The threat against the nation of more than 90 million people also prompted growing calls for the US president's removal from office.

But Trump's genocidal remarks were also seen as the most glaring evidence yet of the dire threat the US president and his enablers pose to all of humanity.

"This is a nightmare scenario," said US Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), one of two Iranian Americans in Congress. "It's apocalyptic."

US Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said in a statement that "with each passing day, it becomes increasingly apparent that Donald Trump is unstable and a clear and present danger, not just to the American people but to the world."

"He must be removed from office before he causes incalculable and unfathomable harm," Markey added. "His threats cannot be dismissed as mere rhetoric. This is as grave a moment as the world has faced in the nuclear era.”

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