NASHVILLE, TN—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street on Fox Business to discuss the Biden Administration and Democrats’ failure to secure the southern border, to show strength to adversaries abroad, and to prevent the looming economic disaster of a rail strike.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on the crisis at the southern border: “It’s an unprecedented crisis, Maria. You and I have talked about it before. I believe it’s the most existential national security crisis we face as a nation. Look, we have children being poisoned every day here in America. Over 107,000 people died last year due to drug overdose, most of it coming across that porous southern border. You know, Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas doesn’t know who’s coming across the border. We have people on the terrorist watch list coming across the border. It is a national security crisis and clearly a humanitarian crisis. If you look at the numbers, Maria, just last month alone, in October, 230,000 people illegally were documented coming across [the southern border]. That doesn’t count the got-a-ways. 230,000 people. If you put that into the size of a Tennessee city, it would make it the third largest city in my home state after Nashville and Memphis, bigger than Knoxville, Tennessee, in one month’s time. This is a massive crisis. Mayorkas is ignoring this, [and] the Biden Administration needs to be held to account. I’m all for what Leader [Kevin] McCarthy is saying. We’ve got to have accountability, and I’m glad he’s getting to it right now.”
Hagerty on Democrats blocking his legislation to stop drug trafficking across the border: “They blocked it yet again. I brought this up in April. They blocked it at that point. This basically enhances Title 42 so that we can use it to stop illegal drug smuggling coming across the southern border, particularly aimed at fentanyl that is poisoning our kids. Again, [Senator] Patty Murray from the Democrat side stood up and blocked my legislation that I just recently put forward after the federal judge decided that he’s going to set aside Title 42 under the current structure. And what we need right now is the strengthening of Title 42. If you take Title 42 away, the border patrol has no tools left. So after the federal judge’s action, I thought this is the perfect time to bring my legislation back that will add trafficking in drugs as another reason to turn these illegal immigrants away. Those that are involved in drug trafficking should be turned away immediately. Instead, the Democrats won’t even do that. They will stop at nothing to collapse our southern border, and we are going to see more and more deaths, more and more poisonings from fentanyl as a result of the crisis that’s going to absolutely cascade after Title 42 is removed.”
Hagerty on China’s growing use of military intimidation: “It’s a complete lack of respect, Maria. As you know, I served as the United States Ambassador to Japan before I came to the United States Senate. I was extraordinarily alarmed. I am just amazed that the United States has not done something about this. We have more U.S. military stationed in Japan than any place else in the world outside of U.S. Borders, and this is a major encroachment. It’s a major threat, and the fact that this White House would stand by and say nothing as this happened is just shocking to me as it is, I’m sure, to all of our viewers today.”
Hagerty on the White House refusing to stand up to Communist China: “What we’ve got to do is call it out. We’ve got to stand up again. Instead, what we’ve got is a White House that is willing to kowtow and capitulate to China at every turn, I guess because they want to structure some type of, you know, climate deal with China. And we’ve all, you know, we’ve all heard about the great compromise of the Biden family when it has to do with China. Hunter Biden is going to have a lot more press here, I think, very soon. We know who the big guy is, and China’s deeply involved in all of this as well. It’s deeply concerning, Maria. We need to address it. We need to stand up to China again. China only respects one thing, and that is strength. America can project that strength, but we’re not doing it right now.”
Hagerty on the potential rail strike: “I think it’s highly likely [that we have a rail strike], Maria. I mean, you hit the nail on the head. The union boss has basically, you know, forced their union members to buck up and accept this deal just to get them through the election, the midterm elections. But now we’re seeing the reality of it. They only offered one additional workday—one additional sick day, I should say. The unions were asking for 15. That’s a big, big gap. [President] Joe Biden declared victory again before the midterm elections. This was all, I think, part of the plan. But what we’re seeing now, the whole thing is coming unraveled, and it’s going to be a real crisis, a two-billion dollar a day economic impact. If you believe the economist estimates, I actually think it could be much greater because you look at the knock on effects on supply chains, it will be significant. This will wreak havoc on the American economy at a time that we’re moving into a very challenging phase. So again, the Biden Administration did everything they could by releasing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, by holding off on this strike to get through the midterm elections.”
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