WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Appropriations, Banking, and Foreign Relations Committees and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, yesterday joined CNN News Central to discuss his support for Pete Hegseth’s nomination to be Secretary of Defense, along with the Senate’s role in ensuring President Donald Trump can carry out his agenda on day one of his Administration.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on his support for Pete Hegseth’s nomination: “I think it’s very clear, Phil. Pete spoke with President Trump this morning, and President Trump, again, indicated his support. I’ve been behind Pete from the very beginning; he’s actually been using my office as a base as he meets with other Senators. And he’s done a very good job; it’s a process of advice and consent. He’s stepping through this, and he’s taking a tremendous amount of incoming pressure for very obvious reasons. He’s here to change the Pentagon. He’s here to put the Pentagon back on a mission of lethality, getting away from pronouns and social experiments, and fixing a broken procurement system. We’ve got a retention crisis that’s terrible. We’ve got a recruitment crisis that’s terrible. And an inspirational leader, like Pete, is just the person to fix this […] I think everybody needs to remain focused on the fact that Pete is the person that President Trump has designated, and I certainly support him one hundred percent. And that is that Pete is a very highly qualified leader. Very bright, intelligent, and he’s somebody that’s going to inspire the rank and file there in the Pentagon, as well as our troops on the ground, that they’ve got a true leader in place.”
Hagerty on Hegseth’s support on the Hill: “I was just with Pete, meeting with a large group of House members, and he had an ovation that was resounding. I think that Pete, as people get to know him, again, as people get to see his deliberate stance on trying to repair the Pentagon, trying to fix our recruiting crisis, our retention crisis, I think people are overwhelmingly supportive of him. And I think that’s going to continue to move in the right direction. The momentum is with Pete right now.”
Hagerty on speculation of potential replacements for Hegseth: “I think [speculation is] totally not constructive. And I think what everybody needs to do is get behind President Trump’s nominee, and I think we need to move this thing forward as quickly and as expeditiously as we can, because we need to be ready for President Trump to hit the ground with the team he wants on day one.”
Hagerty on reason for Washington media focus on Hegseth: “Again, I know Pete. He’s my constituent; I’ve known him for years. I think he’s going to be an inspirational leader, and I think what we’ve seen is what happens here in Washington. It seems to be very popular to go on the offensive, to go on the attack against anybody that President Trump might nominate. The reason for that is President Trump wants to disrupt Washington. He wants to see real change take place. Inertia is the most powerful force in the universe—it’s happening right here in Washington, too—that’s why we’re seeing all this resistance. Washington doesn’t want to change; President Trump was elected to do just that.”
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