NASHVILLE, TN—On Sunday, United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Appropriations and Foreign Relations Committees and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, joined Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News to discuss revelations that the Biden Justice Department surveilled sitting U.S. Senators, Chuck Schumer’s politically motivated shutdown, and China’s growing control over rare earth minerals.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on the Tennessee munitions plant tragedy: “My heart and my prayers go out to the 20 Tennesseans whose lives were lost at a munitions plant explosion on Friday in Hickman County, Tennessee. Men and women around the nation are working in our munitions industry and supply chains to rebuild depleted stores so that we can remain competitive as a nation. My heart goes out to all of them. My prayers, my appreciation, and my thanks.”
Hagerty on Biden’s DOJ spying on U.S. Senators: “It’s not the first time it’s happened to me either. Back in [President Donald] Trump’s first election, I was a finance chair. I went into Trump Tower to help him after the 2016 election; we were surveilled there under the [former President Barack] Obama administration. Now, this time in the [Joe] Biden administration, they’ve decided to surveil eight senators and a Republican congressman. The one thing we all have in common is that we’re Republicans. I guess my crime must be that I’ve been an ally of President Trump for years and served in his administration. It’s shocking that they would surveil our calls–that Jack Smith, after putting President Trump under indictment, decides to come after his allies in the United States Senate. They must have believed they could completely take down the Republican Party. I can’t imagine what they’re looking for, but it is just shocking to no end that they’ve done this.”
Hagerty on demanding accountability from Verizon and DOJ: “I sent a letter to Verizon, my carrier, on Friday, demanding that they let me know why they’d done this. They said that they were operating under a subpoena. I want to know who issued that subpoena and what they were looking for. We’re going to get to the bottom of this. Lawfare like this has to end. We’ve got several options–legal options–as well as a hearing. [Senator] Chuck Grassley is already talking about bringing everybody in. He’s questioning the folks at the DOJ [Department of Justice] and the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation]. I want to understand exactly what Verizon was doing and why our information was leaked out by an adversarial administration coming after us. Why didn’t they inform me that this was happening?”
Hagerty on broader implications of political surveillance: “Any carrier could’ve received one of these subpoenas. This should never be happening in America, yet it did. I don’t understand why people didn’t step up and say something is wrong here. When we have a Democrat administration coming after solely Republican senators, what could they possibly be doing? It’s obvious what they’re doing: going after President Trump using every means that they could to defeat him. These are inappropriate means–beyond inappropriate–and now they’re coming after his allies in the Senate. It’s inexcusable.”
Hagerty on Schumer’s shutdown politics: “Chuck Schumer somehow thinks, and he even said this past week, that every day the shutdown goes on, it’s better for us. My question is, who is ‘us’? It’s not our military, who aren’t getting paid. Thank God, President Trump figured out a way to do that. It’s not our air traffic controllers, it’s not our TSA agents who are somehow keeping the system open, and it’s not law enforcement in Portland who are being attacked while working without pay. Chuck Schumer thinks it’s a win for him to see these people who are trying to protect everyday Americans, to try to keep our systems running, not be paid. It’s crazy. But Chuck Schumer’s waiting until next Saturday when the ‘No Kings’ march in Washington takes place. This way, he can appease the radical left of his party to show that he’s willing to fight Trump to every end, no matter what happens to the American public, our national defense, our national security, or to the ability to protect and help those most needy here in America. He’s willing to sacrifice all of that for his own political career because if you polled it today, Chuck Schumer would lose to AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] in a primary in New York. That’s what’s driving this.”
Hagerty on Schumer’s political motives: “This is all about politics. It’s about Chuck Schumer’s political future. He’s made a career out of being a politician, and it’s at stake right now. He’s underwater with the radical left in his party. New York state is changing, New York City is changing, and Chuck Schumer is trying to bend to the radicals in his party at the detriment of our national security and Americans across the country. The Democrats aren’t winning. The people across America that I talk with are extraordinarily frustrated and fed up. They know exactly who to blame. He [Chuck Schumer] is going to have to come to the table, but I’m shocked he’s willing to do this to the country in the meantime.”
Hagerty on China’s rare earth mineral threat: “It’s deeply concerning. I was U.S. Ambassador to Japan during the first Trump administration and spent a lot of time in that region. The rare earth minerals have been a target of China for years, for decades. We should have seen this coming sooner. We’ve got to be very cognizant that China is using this as a strategic weapon, and President Trump is right to step up and push against it.”
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