NASHVILLE, TN—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 Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News to discuss foreign policy developments in Syria, Ukraine, and Israel, and economic priorities in Congress with an incoming Trump Administration.
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Partial Transcript
Hagerty on the collapse of the Assad regime: “Well, what we’ve seen is a 53-year regime of the Assad family completely collapsed in the face of 13 days. This wouldn’t have been possible had Israel not taken its own best interest to heart and taken out Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. That set off a series of activities that actually brought us to this point. Again, this was against the recommendation of the Biden Administration. And to put a finer point on it, Maria: just this week after Hama fell, and it was obvious that everything was moving toward Damascus, that Syria was going to fall, that Assad would be out, the Biden Administration was working back-channel trying to relieve sanctions on Assad, trying to normalize relations with Syria. This is how out of touch they are. It can’t come soon enough, January 20th, when President Trump comes into office. We’re going to see a complete sea change, but today what we’re seeing is a massive shift in power. Iran is a paper tiger right now. They lack air support. They’ve had to step out of the region. Russia has had to step back. They don’t have the ability to protect and defend again. They’re wrapped around their axle in Ukraine. This is the perfect moment, I think, for President Trump to bring the architecture that he built with the Abraham Accords back into play. He’s already built the architecture. His allies in the region, America’s allies in the region, know how to use this architecture to help rebuild Syria in a much more positive way. We can facilitate that with, you know, solid diplomacy, but our allies in the region are in the place to actually build this and redo this, and I think they’re best positioned to help bring, again, peace and stability to the region. The Biden Administration, the Obama Administration, were so off base trying to create pillars of stability with, get this, with Iran and with Syria, with the JCPOA [Iran Nuclear Deal], and with their attempts to normalize Syria. The right place to start [is] President Trump’s Abraham Accords. That’s the foundation. Those can be used in the region. That’s how we’ll see peace and stability break out.”
Hagerty on the wars in Ukraine and Israel: “I think you see the way these world leaders are reacting. They have the same sense of relief that President Trump is coming to the office that we feel all across America. The pain of the Biden-Harris Administration has just been extensive, and it’s not just here in America. It’s not the pain we’re feeling here – the fact that 72% of Americans think our country is on the wrong track – it’s being felt around the world. The Biden-Harris Administration have put us in a far more unstable place. President Trump has been clear. He wants to see an agreement reached between Ukraine and Russia immediately. He wants to see that settled. Those discussions perhaps are already underway. You certainly see Zelensky coming to meet with President Trump this weekend in Paris. I think the opportunity is before us to get this resolved. With respect to Israel: Israel’s done an incredible job dealing with Hamas, dealing with Hezbollah. They’ve been allowed to do, again, despite the Biden Administration’s recommendations, they’ve been allowed to step up and do what they are capable of doing, and the result has been a massive weakening of the Sword of Damocles that has been over Israel for years, for decades, and that is Hezbollah. Hezbollah has been taken out.”
Hagerty on the upcoming domestic priorities in Congress: “Well, the tax bill is an incredibly high priority for us. If it’s not fixed this year, it’s going to be more than $4 trillion worth of incremental taxes added to the backs of Americans. It’s going to be a terrible impact on the economy, and we’ve got to see our economy strengthen and grow. That’s what everyone expects from President Trump. It is a top priority. I’ve heard the talk about getting these other priorities underway. They’re smaller, they’re easier fixes. We’ve got to go look at the process. I’m willing to work through the weekends, whatever it takes to get this, but all of this done as soon as possible.”
Hagerty on a reconciliation bill in Congress: “You definitely need it for the tax extensions, but there are legislative elements of what’s going on at the border right now that we need to stop. So there are aspects of it that would all benefit from a reconciliation package, whether we bring it together in one large [bill], which I would be fine doing, or if there’s [another] path. And again, I’m just not clear on how we can get this done [from a sequencing standpoint], but it needs to be done as quickly as possible. Whether it’s one or two [bills]. Again, my preference would be to do it all at one time as quickly as we possibly can […] I’m certain what he [Senator John Thune] is doing right now is working with Russ Vought, the OMB [Office of Management and Budget Director nominee], the people at the White House, the Budget Committee, to make certain that we have all the necessary pieces in place to achieve this effectively. The reconciliation tool should be available to us twice, but again, I’d like to see this done as quickly as possible. The momentum is behind President Trump right now. The American public has spoken. Again, we need to be doing this posthaste and I’m happy to be here as long as it takes to make that happen.”
Hagerty on the necessity to enforce sanctions: “The number one priority for incoming [Treasury] Secretary [Scott] Bessent has got to be enforcing the sanctions that are already on the books. There’s no end to my frustration with Secretary Yellen who has told me in committee that, yes, they’ve imposed even more sanctions on Iran. I remind her: it doesn’t matter if you put sanctions in the books, you must enforce them. They stopped enforcing sanctions on Iran the day they came into office. Rob Malley is gone now under FBI investigation, but he was the architect of this non-enforcement of sanctions, again, trying to appease Iran, and what they did was fund terror throughout the region. So we need to enforce what’s on the books first and foremost.”
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