{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-statement-on-sham-elections-in-venezuela", "Murphy Statement On Sham Elections In VenezuelaRead More", "2020-12-07", "2020", "2020-12", "Democrat", "House", "CT", "Christopher Murphy", "M001169", "www.murphy.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Murphy Statement On Sham Elections In Venezuela \n        \n        December 07, 2020\n      \n        \n          WASHINGTONU.S. Senator\r\nChris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations\r\nCommittee, on Monday released the following statement on the sham elections in\r\nVenezuela: To nobody's surprise, the\r\nMaduro regime won the sham elections on Sunday in Venezuela. Nothing about\r\nthese elections were free and fair, and without any credible electoral path on\r\nthe horizon, I worry that the situation will continue to deteriorate as the\r\nTrump administration's maximum pressure' campaign continues to deliver\r\nnothing,\r\nsaid Murphy. Freeing political prisoners and widening humanitarian access\r\nmust be top of mind for the international community as we push for meaningful\r\nprogress in Venezuela. We should also explore some sanctions relief in exchange\r\nfor a return to negotiations, rather than solely relying on feckless sanctions\r\nthat clearly aren't meeting U.S. national security objectives. The only way out\r\nof this crisis is a negotiated solution, and the United States needs to commit\r\nto diplomacy to achieve that goal. In January 2019, Murphy\r\nand Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security advisor during the Obama\r\nadministration wrote a Washington Post op-ed making the case that\r\nDemocrats should stand for democracy in Venezuela. Later in 2019, Murphy also proposed an\r\noil-for-peace program for Venezuela as a means to address the food crisis\r\nthere and reverse the administration's disastrous miscalculations in a Univision\r\nop-ed. ###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-statement-on-sham-elections-in-venezuela"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5382280107587576, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}