NASHVILLE, TN—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 Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News to discuss the SAVE Act, Democrats’ obstruction on Department of Homeland Security funding, digital asset legislation, and President Trump’s leadership abroad.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on voter ID and Democrats’ broader election agenda obstruction: “The American public is broadly in support of showing voter ID. It’s north of 80 percent for the American public. And you’ve got to ask yourself: who are the Democrats in the Senate representing? Over 70 percent of Democrats want this, yet we won’t have a single Democrat who will support it. Why is that? Look no further than what they tried to push forward about five years ago with their HR1/S1–the whole voting apparatus that they tried to come in and change to do away with voter ID across the nation, to enlist 16-year-olds to vote, felons to vote, using taxpayer dollars to support campaigns, and frankly, to pay their own candidates. They’re so detached from reality, it’s just amazing.”
Hagerty on the SAVE Act: “What the SAVE Act does is very simple. It simply requires what we require in my home state of Tennessee. It codifies that to demonstrate that you are indeed an American citizen, in order to vote, you have to be qualified. And then when you go to the poll, you have to prove that you’re yourself by showing an ID. That is not hard. That is not difficult, and it does not impinge on the state’s constitutional abilities to set the time and manner and place of elections. It seems like it should be a no-brainer. But the reason that it’s not is that the Democrats under the Biden administration flooded this country with tens of millions of illegal aliens. They want chaos in the elections. They want no voter ID. So we have to really ask ourselves who they represent and why they’re trying to do this. The American public is with us on this one. We’re looking at the talking filibuster. It’s something that has not been used in a long, long time. It’s a complicated process, but I think we’re going to look at every way we possibly can to get this to the floor, to defeat the Democrats’ obstructionism and do something that makes common sense for Americans.”
Hagerty on using the filibuster for the SAVE Act: “We’re looking at it [the talking filibuster]. We’ve gone through it as a conference, and now that we have [Sen.] Susan [Collins] on board, we’re going to be laser-focused on this and any other method we can utilize to get this on the floor. This is obviously something the American people want. What we’ll have if we actually implement it is a higher turnout at elections because people will have more confidence that the election of their vote is going to be sacred. It’s going to be safe, and we’re going to have voter integrity.”
Hagerty on leading Democrats’ response to China and Taiwan: “You can see the lack of seriousness among leading Democrats here in America. Contrast that with Secretary of State [Marco] Rubio’s speech. He did a brilliant job articulating the region and the rationale for America to work closely with our European allies and to stand strong against adversaries like China. That’s the type of leadership that America has got right now, thank goodness. And you see this non-serious behavior of someone like this going over to Munich when they’re not prepared. It reflects poorly on America. I’ve got to think that that did not help her [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] career politically to go and have an embarrassing moment like that.”
Hagerty on the strength of the U.S.–Japan alliance following Japan’s parliamentary elections: “The relationship is stronger than ever. President Trump is extraordinarily popular in Japan. That was certainly the case when I was Ambassador [to Japan]. We worked very hard to make that bond strong with his friend and ally, Prime Minister Abe, a great man. Takaichi is actually a protégé of Abe, and she’s carried the ball even further. The Japanese public is responding to President Trump’s endorsement of Takaichi. That went a long way. She now has record popularity, and they have a super majority for her party in the [National] Diet in the Japanese parliament. So, we see that coming together in a way that I think really reflects the strength of our alliance, the strongest alliance in the world right now between the United States and Japan. And if you think about who doesn’t like this, it’s the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]. You look at what the foreign minister of China said at the Munich Security Conference; he’s obviously deeply concerned. If you look at what Defense Minister Koizumi said, Japan is standing strong. So, we’ve got a strong partner from an economic standpoint, from a military standpoint, that projects strength in the region. North Korea, Russia, and China are all disappointed in this.”
Hagerty on bringing the SAVE Act to the Senate floor: “I think [Sen.] John [Thune] and the entire leadership are looking at the best method to get this done. We all want it. We all want it to happen. So, I won’t get ahead of the leader. He’s got to navigate the procedural aspects of this in the Senate. But I think it’s clear, Republicans want to see this happen. It’s common sense, and I hope we get on it as soon as we possibly can.”
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