Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) strongly defended the Democratic National Committee for holding what he called a "truly impartial" primary process in a testy interview Monday with Fox News.
At one point, Murphy told Special Report host Bret Baier in a wry voice that he realized their back-and-forth made for good television.
The Democrats gaveled in their convention on Monday in a state of utter turmoil. Leaked Democratic committee emails revealed clear favoritism for Hillary Clinton and disparagement for insurgent Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) from party officials, setting off an uproar with his far-left supporters.
On Sunday, party chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.), who was among the email voices ripping Sanders, announced she would resign her post at the conclusion of the convention. Supporters of Sanders booed Schultz off the stage at a Florida delegate breakfast event Monday, and they booed Sanders himself when he said they needed to elect Clinton president. They booed Clinton's name being mentioned during the invocation, and convention chair Rep. Marcia Fudge (D., Ohio) chastised them to show respect while she spoke.
With all that in the background, Baier noted to Murphy that Democrats couldn't have wanted to start their convention in such a way.
"Listen, I think first of all, we have to understand that conventions are for insiders ... What happens here and what happens in Philadelphia, it's interesting for you and I, it's interesting for people that pay attention to politics, but it's really not what ultimately makes up people's minds," Murphy said.
Murphy said a "handful" of Sanders supporters made a "little bit of noise" but their conduct was not indicative of the majority of his fans.
"Maybe as more and more find out about what was written in those emails, they're kind of—we talked to a bunch here who say they're really angry about it," Baier said. "And the fact that the party chairman had to resign and couldn't even gavel in this convention, that's kind of embarrassing."
Murphy said people should actually be angry that the Russians were likely responsible for the hack in the first place. Clinton campaign officials have charged that they did it to assist Donald Trump's campaign, and Baier asked Murphy if he felt the same.
"I'm not suggesting that there's some coordination between the two, but what people should be angry about is this is potentially a foreign government that is trying to influence an American election,"Murphy said. "I'm not suggesting that there's any coordination between Donald Trump and the Russians. But if that's the case, that should be the outrage coming out of the last few days, not the content of internal Democratic National Committee emails."
Baier didn't relent, asking Murphy at what point was the chair of the DNC herself not supposed to be unbiased in the race. Murphy retorted that the conduct of the DNC was relevant.
"They were balanced in their approach, and Bernie Sanders himself says that it is not the DNC that caused him to lose the nomination ... What we pay the Democratic National Committee to do is to run a truly impartial election, which they did, period, stop," Murphy said.
As Murphy continued to mount his defense, Baier asked him if he wasn't worried about any more embarrassing displays from Sanders supporters.
"I think this makes wonderful TV, and so I get it, but I also understand that 90 percent of Sanders supporters have already decided to support Hillary Clinton, and so that loud minority may be making a show today, but it doesn't extend to having an effect on the election," he said.