NASHVILLE, TN—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Banking and Foreign Relations Committees and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, yesterday joined Election Day in America on CNN to discuss the implication of Tuesday night’s resounding victory for President Trump.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on the speculation surrounding the White House cabinet: “I’ll leave the speculation to the speculators. I’m just so excited that President Trump has delivered the mandate that he did on election day. I’m so pleased that Republicans are now in control of the Senate, and I do believe that we’ll hold control of the House. So, the opportunity before us is to literally turn our nation back on the right track again. You’ve got 72 percent of Americans saying that we’re on the wrong track. This is a huge opportunity for America, and I look forward to working arm-in-arm with President Trump in whatever role to make certain that we get our nation, our great nation, back to the potential that we can […] As I said, I’m not going to engage in any speculation. I’ll leave that to others. The main focus now is not to create sideshows, but to be getting ready to deliver for the American people. That’s where I’m focused.”
Hagerty on the status of Nippon Steel’s attempted purchase of U.S. Steel: “Well, what I’d say first is this: my job as a U.S. Ambassador to Japan was to advance America’s interest in Japan and throughout that entire region. That’s the way I would look at any transaction here. It has nothing to do with the nationality of the company that’s trying to make the acquisition, and it has everything to do with our national security, with American interest, with American jobs. That’s the lens I think that we should apply. The national security lens is one that will be used, and there are issues, frankly, with this company from the past of unfair trade practices. We’ll have to navigate through that, but it’s certainly not anything that I’m advocating for or against based on the nationality of the company. It’s based on America’s primary interests […] Former Secretary [Mike] Pompeo obviously is much closer to this if he’s working alongside or helping Nippon Steel with this effort. I’ll say this: if Nippon Steel hopes to prevail in this effort to make this acquisition successful in the United States, they’re going to have to make their case in terms of the investments that they would make, the positive job implications it would have here in America, and the fact that it does support rather than detract from our national security. I’d have to see that case made, and I have not seen it yet.”
Hagerty on the current relationship between the United States and Japan: “We [U.S. and Japan] have dealt with China’s rising power for a great deal of time. Japan’s interest and the United States’ interest are completely aligned because both of our nations have suffered from the predatory practices of China, whether it’s stealing or intellectual property, subsidizing industries to a level that makes it impossible to compete with them, and blocking our access to their markets. China does not play fair. They don’t play by the same set of rules. You think about Japan’s perspective, they’re even more proximate to the threat of China. And if you look at what China’s done in the East China Sea surrounding Japanese islands, the Senkaku Islands there, if you look at what they’re doing in the South China Sea, frustrating trade routes, building artificial islands. Japan’s interests are very much aligned with ours from an economic standpoint and a national security standpoint as we look at China. So, I don’t see any wedge being driven there at all.”
Hagerty on President Trump’s tariff proposals: “I’ll put another question to you: why take the word of these executives when what we’ve seen […] what we’ve seen in reality is when President Trump imposed the steel tariffs, the aluminum tariffs, everybody predicted there would be massive inflation. You know that President Trump left an economy to Biden Harris that had only 1.5% inflation. It did not materialize, and I don’t have any reason to expect that to occur again despite whatever pre-election threats might have been delivered. I think what the networks need to think about is portraying the reality of President Trump’s performance in the first Administration. I served in that Administration. He delivered a booming economy. Instead, the last two times I’ve interviewed on this network talking about President Trump, I’ve had to defend claims of fascism, Hitlerism. It’s amazing. The last time I was here: firing squad for Liz Cheney. I think it’s time for the networks to really focus on what President Trump has done, rather than trying to perpetuate some sort of pre-election threats. Let’s focus on what the results will be.”
Hagerty on the upcoming Senate leadership election: “Again, we haven’t gotten to that point yet. That election will take place next week. We’re going to hear from all of the candidates at that point. I’ll tell you this: my number one priority is making certain we have a leader that aligns our Senate with the incredible challenge that we’ve got in the next 100-200 days, of turning our nation back around, of working arm-in-arm with President Trump as he puts executive orders together, as we put a reconciliation package together, hopefully, to make certain that we advance those critical principles that the American public have voted us into office for. The mandate that we have is clear. We’ve got to turn our nation around so we see a stronger economy, stronger national security, a better posture certainly at our border, deal with crime in our cities, and restore America’s reputation around the world. It will take a majority leader that’s going to work arm-in-arm with President Trump to get that to happen. Certainly, no one that’s part of the resistance should be in a role like that. We’ve got to make this happen efficiently and rapidly. It’s going to take that type of leadership to bring it all together.”
