Hartford — Fresh off a trip to the Munich Security Conference, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., speaking to reporters here Tuesday, pointed to confusion and fear among European leaders over U.S. foreign policy, a result, he said, of conflicting statements made by President Donald Trump and his surrogates.

"It's hard to overhype how badly America's image and influence has been damaged in the last month. Our allies simply don't know what America's foreign policy is any longer," he said.

Murphy praised Trump's choice of Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster to replace ousted Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as national security advisor, saying McMaster will bring "sober, commonsense" leadership to the position.

Murphy was part of a bipartisan congressional delegation led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that attended the three-day Munich conference, the major global forum for the discussion of security policy.

"Our intent was to show bipartisan support for Europe, for NATO and for continued sanctions against Russia despite the fact that our administration does not always seem to share those sentiments," he said.

Speaking in Munich on Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence reaffirmed the U.S.'s "strong support" for NATO, and said the U.S. "will be unwavering in our commitment" to the transatlantic relationship. His remarks were met with applause.

While Pence's speech was "full of reassuring language for our allies, it went over like a lead balloon," Murphy said.

"Why? Because our allies didn't know whether Vice President Pence was speaking for the government's foreign policy positions or whether President Trump's Twitter account does," he continued.

Trump and Pence were expected to talk about the Munich trip over dinner Tuesday night.

During the trip, Pence was an "incredible representative" for the nation and the president, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said during a news briefing Tuesday afternoon.

"He reiterated our support for European allies, and unified pursuit of the noble ideas of freedom, democracy and justice, and the rule of law, and discussing how to do more to encourage all NATO allies to meet their financial obligations and commitments," Spicer said.

As for the president, Spicer said Trump "looks forward to working closely with NATO to advance their shared objectives."

Trump's travel ban, which was intended to temporarily bar citizens from seven majority-Muslim nations from entering the U.S., was also a frequent topic of conversation at the conference, according to Murphy.

Masoud Barzani, president of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, "pleaded with us" to strike down the ban, and expressed how difficult it will be in the future to convince Iraqis to continue to fight against the Islamic State "if they are being told that they are the enemy of the U.S.," Murphy said.

Murphy came away from the conference "more clear than ever" that the U.S. needs to expand sanctions against Russia.

With elections in France and Germany later this year, and "stories" of how the Russians are using some of the same tactics in those countries that they used in the U.S., "we need to make them pay a price for their interference in American elections so that they understand the cost of doing the same thing in European elections," Murphy said.

j.bergman@theday.com