Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.) on Tuesday told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell that his constituents did not talk about Russia during his recent 110-mile walking tour across Connecticut.
Murphy, one of President Donald Trump's biggest critics and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that his constituents did not raise the war in Afghanistan or Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
"But they also didn't talk too much about Russia," Murphy said. "They talked about health care primarily. That was loud and clear the most important issue to them. They talked about the quality of their kids' schools, how much money they were earning in their paycheck."
"I think it is important to remember that people that aren't paying attention to politics on a daily basis are still really focused on pocketbook issues and their economic lives, which haven't gotten better," he added.
Murphy said that it was "really grounding" to do the walk around his state. He added that just because people are not talking about Russia or Afghanistan does not mean those are not important issues.
Mitchell asked Murphy whether it was "eye-opening" for him, as one of the senators most vocally pushing the probe into potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, not to get questions about the investigation.
"It's not surprising to me because this is the second year that I've done that walk, and I certainly do enough things in my state to understand that there is a disconnect sometimes between what we're focusing on and what people are focusing on," Murphy said.
"That doesn't mean these issues of war and peace don't necessitate our time," Murphy added. "It doesn't mean that we should just give away foreign policy power to a growing imperial presidency just because it's not the first thing that people talk to us about back home."
Murphy was also asked about the recent violence in Charlottesville, Va. and whether his constituents were concerned about Trump's response to it.
"People that were more politically plugged in really wanted to talk about Charlottesville," Murphy said. "In general, people across the walk were just very disappointed in the tone from the president."
Murphy said the people not plugged into politics were still focused on economic issues, which Murphy said his colleagues need to factor in when discussing various issues.