NASHVILLE, TN—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) today joined The Faulkner Focus to discuss his recent trip to Israel.
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Partial Transcript Below:
Hagerty on U.S. standing with Israel: “[T]here is a small, yet very vocal minority in the Democrat Party that is pushing back against our strongest ally, Israel. Israel is our strongest ally in the Middle East and has been since 1948. I was there to stand strong and show our continued support for Israel—that’s true from Democrats, from Independents, from Republicans. And as Senator Graham said, we’re going to, in the end, standby and prevail and make certain that we’ve replenished Israel’s defenses. Those defenses, Harris, had enormous accuracy. They saved not only Israeli lives, but Palestinian lives. Hamas launched 4,000 rockets on Israel over the 11-day period and the Iron Dome defense mechanism did a miraculous job. Can you imagine if the Israelis had used something more crude, more blunt? Many more Palestinian lives would have been lost. The vocal minority in the Democrat Party may squeak, as they say, they may make a lot of noise, but I think the American public clearly is with Israel.”
Hagerty on Biden Administration’s stance toward Iran: “President Biden’s got to look forward and stand up to these very liberal voices, these very left-leaning voices, that seem to be pulling both him and his entire party far to the left. Now’s the time to stand with our allies. Now is the time to demonstrate to Israel that we’re going to stand strong. I think the biggest problem that President Biden’s got to encounter is that at the very root, it’s his embrace of Iran that’s emboldening Hamas. It’s emboldening these other proxies to step up and attack Israel. We’re being tested. President Biden needs to appreciate that. And we need to stand strong with Israel right now.”
Hagerty on combatting the rise of anti-Semitism: “I think anti-Semitism has no place in America. Racism has no place in America. That’s not the American way, and we need to stand up against it at every turn. And you’ll hear my voice. You certainly heard it from Senator Graham. You’ve heard it from Senator Cruz on our trip. We stand with Israel and we’re not going to tolerate this.”
Hagerty on Tennesseans standing with Israel: “Again, back to the small, but very vocal minority that are being fueled by a media, that is very left leaning. They’re trying to pull the Democrat party in a direction that I don’t think America wants to be, that America will not go. And again, I’ll state this from the standpoint of Tennesseans: We stand with Israel. Whether they be Democrat, Independent, Republican, Tennesseans are standing with Israel. And I think that’s true for the majority of America.”