WASHINGTON—Today, 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, joined America’s Newsroom on Fox News to discuss Iran nuclear talks, along with deporting Chinese nationals that are in the country illegally.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on Iran nuclear talks: “If you think about it, we would not be in this position had we stayed with the ‘Maximum Pressure Campaign’ that President [Donald] Trump put in place in the first administration. When I was Ambassador to Japan, that was part of my role to get the Japanese to stop buying Iranian crude [oil]. We did that all over the world. We brought Iranian reserves down to almost nothing. The pressure was enormous on them. They were ready to deal. [Former President] Joe Biden comes into office, immediately relaxes all of the sanctions. Money starts flowing back to Iran. Terror starts flowing in the region. Iran is the heart of all of the terror that’s happening in the Middle East right now. And this is their tactic. They go back to obfuscating, trying to kick the can down the road, drawing out time. President Trump has dealt with them. He understands this—and I’m certain he’s disappointed with it—but he also strategically needs to bring them back to the table. And Iran needs to understand we will not tolerate their behavior. We’re not going to tolerate their funding [of] terrorism, and they will not have a nuclear weapon.”
Hagerty on the stark difference between Obama’s and Trump’s negotiations with Iran: “If you think about what’s happened since that time, the Bidens allowed a lot more money to flow into Iran. Iran has advanced the ball much further in terms of their enrichment capabilities. That would’ve never happened at President Trump’s state in office. But again, the overarching objective is to stop Iran and stop this regime from funding terror and also do not allow them to get in a position to threaten the rest of the world with nuclear competence. That means they’re not going to get a nuclear weapon. So, the terms broadly are the same. The conditions are quite different though, and they’re much worse thanks to the Biden administration that stepped in and made [it] difficult for President Trump the first time, with the pallets of cash that [Former President Barack] Obama gave them, even though the Iranians never abided by the original negotiation, the original deal that they struck as well.”
Hagerty on deporting illegal Chinese nationals: “This threat wouldn’t exist [had] Joe Biden not collapsed our southern border. These people are here illegally in the first place. The many that have been deported now recently were here illegally coming from China, coming from all over the world, many without our best interests at heart. The other piece of this, though—and let’s not forget what China has done on fentanyl as well—the precursors that continue to flow into this country. They’re waging war on us in multiple ways. This agroterrorism is a part of a biotechnology effort that China has going on, that the [Chinese Communist Party] has going on. I’ve fought hard here with my Biosecure Act to prevent U.S. funds from supporting biotechnology research that would happen here with Chinese equipment. We don’t want them to have access to our DNA data, certainly our genomic data. They’re trying at every front to gain advantage. And this agroterrorism was deeply, deeply concerning. If that had happened, if we’d not caught that, who knows what might’ve happened to our crops. It would’ve been devastating. So, we need to be much more diligent at every level. President Trump’s certainly trying to do that, and by making certain that these Chinese nationals, as well as many others, that are here illegally that may not have our best interest at heart. Sending them back out of the country is the right move.”
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