It’s the New York Post, and so there are pictures. One shows
Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy canoodling with “Courier Newsroom publisher
Tara McGowan, 39, last Monday by the bar at the Red Hen, located just one mile
north of Capitol Hill.”
The canoodle occurred one day or night prior to Murphy’s
well-advertised absence from President Donald Trump’s recent Joint Address to
Congress. Murphy has said attendance at
what was essentially a “campaign rally” involving the whole U.S. Congress –
though Democrat congresspersons signaled their displeasure at the event by
stonily sitting on their hands during the applause lines – was inconsistent
with his dignity as a significant part of the permanent opposition to Trump.
Reaching for his moral Glock Murphy recently told the
Hartford Courant that Democrat Party opposition to President Donald Trump
should be unrelenting and unforgiving: “I think people won’t trust you if you
run a campaign saying that if Donald Trump is elected, he’s an existential
threat to democracy, [and a fascist as well] and then you retreat. If he’s such
a threat to democracy, then you need to be fighting every day… I haven’t been
shy about my belief that the Democratic (sic) Party is pretty broken as a
brand. We also have to do some hard work to make sure that people know we are
the party that actually stands for the breakup of concentrated power,
increasing wages, and the pushback against the corporate control of our
economy. So this can’t be all resistance. We’ve got to do some work to rebuild
who the Democratic Party is and what we stand for.”
The headline on the Post story reads “Dem Sen. Chris Murphy
caught ‘cuddling’ on date with progressive media publisher — amid separation
from his wife."
One picture shows “Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) … ‘cuddling’
with Courier Newsroom publisher Tara McGowan last Monday by the bar at the Red
Hen. Obtained by The Post
“McGowan,” we are told, “was until last year married to
Michael Halle, a fellow Dem strategist and former senior adviser to
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. He also served on the presidential
campaigns of Buttigieg, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The Courier founder
and publisher filed for divorce in May 2023, citing “irreconcilable
differences,” and the marriage was dissolved the following year in April, Rhode
Island state court filings show.”
McGowan’s Courier and Murphy have in the past, according to
the Post, been politically intimate: “The for-profit news organization — funded
by the liberal billionaires George Soros and Reid Hoffman — is also one of
several lefty pop-up groups that McGowan has founded since the first Trump
administration.
In 2017, she co-founded Lockwood Strategy, a political
campaign firm that helped Virginia Democrats retake the state legislature
within two years. Digital ads rolled out by Lockwood also helped clients such
as Planned Parenthood and the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.”
There is a witness, unnamed, to the cuddle quoted by the
paper: “The source said Murphy wrapped his arm around McGowan’s shoulder at one
point, and the two were ‘being cutesy’ while scanning the menu together for
rustic Italian fare.”
According to the Post, “The cozy outing took place the night
before President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, which the
senator sat out. The Democratic lawmaker is apparently still married to his
wife, Cathy Holahan, a lawyer based in Washington, as neither has filed for
divorce in Connecticut or DC, per public court records. The couple announced
they were parting ways last November.” And then the crusher follows: “A DC Dem
insider told Semafor that McGowan is having a love affair with the senator —
and shared a selfie of them on her private Instagram last week with the caption
‘not postponing joy.’” The selfie and titillating note has since been removed
from McGowan’s Instagram page.
Murphy’s separation from his wife of (11) years was jointly
announced in an email to their close friends published soon after the 2024
election by the Hartford Courant: “After much reflection and discussion, we
have decided to separate as a couple. We do so with deep care and respect for
each other, and with a focus on continuing to be friends and loving,
collaborative parents to our boys whom we adore. This was a difficult decision,
but we believe that it is right for us, and we are going to move onto this new
path the right way. We will continue to support each other personally and
professionally. And we hope you all will stay connected with both of us.”
These revelations, if true, may not be conducive to a smooth
divorce, but will they adversely impact Murphy’s political future? Wives and
husbands looking forward to a separation and possible divorce that will end in
“mutual support” on both sides are sometimes put off by such disclosures. Need
one mention that Murphy’s possibly distressed wife is a lawyer in Washington
D.C. who in the past has smilingly
supported her husband’s thus far successful political career.
Putting aside moral questions, there are limits to the
sturdy approbation of politically faithful wives.
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