‘The American public can see right through it.’
PHILADELPHIA, PA—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), former U.S. Ambassador to Japan in the Trump Administration, today joined CNN News Central to discuss the latest outrageous smear campaign against former President Donald Trump and the Biden-Harris Administration’s failures in both the economy and foreign policy.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on his personal experience serving in the Trump Administration: “I’ll say this: I did serve with President Trump as U.S. Ambassador to Japan. We have more U.S. military stations there in Japan than any place else in the world overseas. President Trump came to visit me three times—we always met with our military there—and I never saw anything but the utmost respect, both President Trump’s respect for our military, and their love and respect for him. That’s what I know.”
Hagerty on John Kelly’s slanderous claims against Trump: “It’s wholly inconsistent with my experience with President Trump. I also have reason to doubt it because there’ve been articles published about ‘losers’ and the things that were supposedly said in Normandy. I called the Ambassador right away. Again, these are old stories that are being drug up, of course, within two weeks of the election. But when I called the Ambassador, she said [the claims were] absolutely not true [regarding] what was attributed to John Kelly [in 2020], 20 other staffers said that was the case as well. I think this is being brought up at a time to divert and deflect. Here’s the story: American people right now need to be asking themselves a very basic question: Are they better off today than they were when President Trump was in office? Kamala Harris is claiming all these things that she might be able to do, yet she’s done none of them for the past three and a half years. What we’ve got is a situation where Kamala Harris can’t find any place where she would differ from Joe Biden. Seventy two percent of Americans think that this country is on the wrong track. All they have to do is look back to the time when President Trump was in office; that debunks these claims. President Trump had our economy working. People respected us—nations respected us—we had people better off in every demographic group. And I think that’s why Americans are seeing President Trump’s polls move forward, and I think that’s why we see these desperate things coming out here at the last minute, again, within the last two weeks, citing something from the deep past. It’s irrelevant at this point. Americans need to know: Will [they] be better off? Seventy two percent of Americans say we’re on the wrong track right now; I think they’re ready for change […] Real wages [are] what I think most people care about. Real wages [are] what they care about, and they were better off [under Trump].”
Hagerty on the false claim that Trump doesn’t respect the military: “His record as commander in Chief debunks [these baseless claims] in my mind…Because why? He actually did have us in position where there were no wars. You have [President] Joe Biden as Commander in Chief; what did he do? He and [Vice President] Kamala Harris, the last in the room, made a terrible decision in Afghanistan that led to the death of 13 service members, very personal to me. One of them was Ryan Knauss, a Tennessean. And I had to call Ryan’s parents and tell them what happened. You think about it: Joe Biden is there at the return of the remains at Dover. He doesn’t even have time for them; he’s looking at his watch. And when he’s in debate, he tells the world that no military man or woman died under his watch. He just forgot about the 13 that died on his watch. That’s presidential disrespect; I don’t see that coming up. Instead, you have claims that cannot be verified from someone that obviously doesn’t like President Trump and was fired by President Trump […] President Trump is a patriot. He loves this country.”
Hagerty on Trump’s foreign policies having substantially greater success than Biden-Harris’ policies: “I’ve actually seen Donald Trump in the room with Vladimir Putin and with Xi Jinping, with [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi, with [Former Prime Minister Shinzo] Abe. He’s able to hold his own. I certainly don’t think Kamala Harris could do that. Donald Trump knows how to negotiate. He knows how to deal with world leaders, and he can deal from a position of strength. That’s what Americans need right now. That’s what Americans should be asking themselves this close to the election, is who will represent our nation? Who will put us back in a posture of strength? Donald Trump clearly can do that because he’s done it before. Under his watch, we had no major wars breakout. As soon as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris came back into office, we saw the exact opposite. We’ve got hot wars now in the Middle East—you see what’s happening in Ukraine and Russia…It’s a very bad situation that’s occurred over the past three and a half years. Kamala Harris could have done something about it if she were serious. Obviously, she didn’t, and I think the American public can see right through it.”
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