United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), former U.S. Ambassador to Japan and member of the Senate Banking and Foreign Relations Committees, today joined Meet the Press on NBC News to discuss President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and economic policies, as well as recent developments in the Middle East.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on Kash Patel’s nomination for FBI Director: “I’ve encouraged President Trump to bring Kash Patel to the table for precisely this reason. Unlike Jake [Sullivan], I understand his resistance to talk about Kash, but I’m more than happy to talk about him. He represents the type of change that we need to see in the FBI. If you think about the failures of background checks that have taken place: How could we have somebody like Colin Kahl who tweeted out classified information? I went to the FBI myself. They ignored me. Basically, he was confirmed on a party line vote in the U.S. Senate with Kamala Harris breaking the tie to put this person that should not even have a security clearance in the third most powerful position at DOD [Department of Defense]. You’ve got Rob Malley: I don’t know how he cleared an FBI check. He’s now under investigation. His ties to the Iranian influence regime that worked with him and for him. Ariane Tabatabai, who is still at the DOD, should never cleared an FBI background check. This entire agency needs to be cleaned out. It’s not doing its job. And if you look at what happened, the politicization that took place back in 2016 when senior leaders of the FBI collaborated and conspire to try to keep President Trump out of office. And then when he came into office, they put together this fake ‘Russiagate’ investigation that hindered the Trump Administration in the first several years. Look at 2020: Look at what happened there with the, you know, fake Hunter Biden story that, you know, the FBI leadership worked together with Big Tech to censor the Hunter Biden laptop that allowed President Biden to basically, you know, fool the American public and come into office. There are serious problems at the FBI, the American public knows it. They expect to see sweeping change, and Kash Patel is just the type of person to do it […] I think you should have the Biden Administration look at itself. What is the qualification of Tony Blinken to become Secretary of State? Well, he organized 51 so-called intelligence experts to put together a fake letter saying that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. That must have qualified him to be Secretary of State. President Trump is entitled to name his appointees. That is exactly what he’s doing and I’m going to support this appointment. Kash has worked in national security, he’s worked at the Department of Justice, and he’s somebody that has been willing to uncover the wrongs of the FBI. He’s the one that uncovered for the American public what happened with ‘Russiagate’. He’s the one that can see through the fix here[…]there are people that are serving in the current [Biden] Administration that are woefully inexperienced. I think Kash does have relevant experience, particularly when it comes to the mandate the American public has assigned of turning these agencies around that have become completely corrupted. Kash has pointed it out. He’s probably the best of uncovering what’s happened at the FBI and I look forward to seeing him taking it apart.”
Hagerty on President Trump’s tariff threats against China, Mexico, and Canada: “I think one of the most important things that we have as a nation is our economy. That’s the most important, most incredible source of competitive advantage that the United States has. Access to our economy is a privilege. If you think about it: We have made access to this economy a strategic tool ever since World War II. If you think about what happened in Japan and countries in Europe, when those economies were decimated, the United States put in place very favorable terms of trade to get those countries to rebuild their economies, to trade with us, rather than trading with communist countries. We have used these tools effectively decade after decade after decade. Right now, the United States has the most open market of any major economy in the world. We need to take a very hard look at countries that don’t have our best interest at heart, countries that are allowing our borders to be violated and use those tariffs as a tool to achieve our ends […] What it needs to lead to is a correction of the behavior that’s taking place right now that is letting Fentanyl flood into our border, that is allowing people to flood into our country – millions of people, undocumented, illegal people breaking into our country. It needs to stop, and President Trump is going to use every lever at his disposal to do it. And I think it’s absolutely appropriate to use tariffs as one of those tools. That’s a major tool.”
Hagerty on the weakening of Hezbollah in the Middle East: “I think what we’ve seen is a major turning point, particularly with respect to Israel’s move against Hezbollah. Again, Israel took these moves against the warnings of the Biden Administration. The Biden Administration did not want them to take the aggressive steps that they took in Lebanon to deal with Hezbollah, but what we’ve seen is Hezbollah is basically being decimated. And in the aftermath of that, you’ve seen Hezbollah’s inability to continue to shore up Assad. That’s led to this change. Now, as I understand it, Aleppo has now fallen. We may see Assad, you know, on the mat very, very soon. I think the situation has completely changed, but it’s changed because of the leadership of Israel and their willingness to stand up to Hezbollah.”
Hagerty on Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination for Director of National Intelligence: “I think what she also represents is a broad tent that President Trump has put in place, bringing together Democrats, bringing together people with different voices. What he’s doing is he is reaching out and broadening the party and broadening our reach. He’s bringing Tulsi into his cabinet to achieve a specific purpose, and I look forward to supporting that […] I plan to support President Trump’s candidates because the American public needs to see dramatic change and she’s the type of candidate that will do that.”
