WASHINGTON – United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) today joined Mornings with Maria with Maria Bartiromo to talk H.R.1 and Hagerty’s election integrity legislation.
Partial Transcript Below:
Hagerty on Democrats’ Priorities: “It’s very telling, Maria, that the very first bill they pass after this quote ‘COVID Relief’ package, which that’s a different story, but the very first bill they seek to pass is this H.R.1, the so-called ‘For the People Act,’ which— like so many bills in Washington— is a misnomer. It’s anything but for the people. It’s for the politicians. What it is, is a Democrat attempt to basically lock in the power that they’ve just taken. They want to grab it forever and turn us into a single-party type of jurisdiction here in America. We’ve got to stand up against that.”
Hagerty on H.R.1: “They’re taking [elections] out of the state’s hands. They would have taxpayers in Tennessee, my home state, subsidizing the elections of politicians in New York. Do Tennesseans want to be subsidizing AOC’s election? They would federalize elections in America and force taxpayers to pay for them rather than forcing politicians to earn the support of folks in their own state. They would allow for… unlimited ballot harvesting. These are all the wrong incentives and, in fact, it loosens things even further and it’s going to sow further damage in America’s confidence in our election system. That’s why I put forward legislation to address this…”
Hagerty on whether H.R.1 will pass the Senate: “I’m going to fight [H.R.1] every step of the way. That’s why I’ve offered a very practical alternative to restore America’s confidence in the system. We need not be loosening the rules right now; we need to be making certain the Constitution is followed. And I think H.R.1 is an unconstitutional provision because it takes away the power from the state legislatures. That’s what Article II Section I of the Constitution clearly enumerates, that the authority for elections lies with elected state legislators who are responsible and accountable to people in their states—not with the federal government… It’s very hard to say right now, but it depends on whether the filibuster is abided by or not. I certainly don’t think you’ll see 10 Republicans move over to the side of H.R.1. I don’t think you’ll see a single Republican move in that direction. Again, this is clearly a power grab by the Democrats.”
Hagerty on his plan to put together a Commission to review the 2020 Election: “I think what they’re going to find is that in several instances, the laws were changed midterm— as the elections were underway— unconstitutional actors stepped in, violated the United States Constitution and took away the Constitutionally-granted authority that solely lies within the realm of state legislators. You had actors in the judiciary, you had actors in the executive branch, you had unelected commissions that basically stepped in and changed the rules midstream and they’ve shaken America’s confidence in the election system to the very core… [O]ur legislation would… force an examination of what took place in 2020. To the extent the Constitution was violated, I’m certain we’re going to find this in several states, to the extent there were Constitutional violations, those violations would have to be corrected before a single federal dollar would ever go back to those states to support elections. And back in 2020, Congress sent some $825 million to the states to support elections at that point. This will create an incentive to behave according to the Constitution. That’s what this aims to do: to put the right incentives in place, to clean up what happened in 2020, and restore confidence in the American electoral system… What we’ve got to do though… is draw a clear focus on the fact that there were severe issues that arose in 2020. Again, what the Senate needs to do is talk to their constituents, that’s Democrats and Republicans, to understand and appreciate the grave concerns and this legislation would fix that and, again, make certain that the incentives are properly aligned so that no federal dollars go to states that violate the United States Constitution with respect to election laws.”
Hagerty on protecting the filibuster: “Senator Sinema [and] Senator Manchin have both been clear that they do not want to see the filibuster taken apart… We’ve got to maintain the filibuster if we want any sense of bipartisanship here in America… You’ve got to believe that Democrats realize that, at some point, the table is going to turn. Do [Democrats] want to be on the other end of this? I think not. They’re going to have to think long and hard before they do further damage to the process here. And I think the filibuster will stand.”