NASHVILLE, TN—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) yesterday joined the Fox Report with Jon Scott to discuss his push to hold the Biden Administration accountable for its botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the recent news that the “over-the-horizon” strike in August, targeting ISIS-K terrorists was a mistake, resulting in the deaths of 10 civilians. Hagerty also weighed in on the deal announced this week between the U.S., UK, and Australia, which led to the French recalling their Ambassador to the United States on Friday.
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Partial Transcript
Hagerty on intelligence failures resulting in the loss of 10 innocent civilians: “It’s yet another failure of intelligence on our part […] If we indeed are relying on the Taliban for intelligence for something as critical as this, and the result is you can see the loss of 10 innocent lives—of seven children, an aid worker, trying to help. This is just a tragedy, and it’s an embarrassment to America as a nation. We’ve got to find a way to address this in a much more responsible way.”
Hagerty on catastrophe in Afghanistan: “It’s deeply concerning. We’ve given up our posture on the ground there. Of course, we have a much weaker intelligence posture today than we did before. This whole execution has been nothing but a catastrophe. And again, a complete lack of accountability on our side with respect to it.”
Hagerty on lack of accountability in the Biden Administration: “What we’ve seen in our allies is the Dutch Foreign Minister stepped down this week. The same for the British Foreign Minister, both have stepped down, they’ve stepped down over their role or their lack of accountability for Afghanistan. They’ve stepped up and taken responsibility. A big part of leadership, Jon, is owning the problem, yet, the only accountability that we’ve seen from the Biden Administration thus far has been one lone Lieutenant Colonel who actually called for accountability. He’s been dismissed. He’s been relieved of his duties, but we see no senior leadership in the Biden Administration step up and take responsibility. At the end of the day, this is at the feet of the Commander-in-Chief, who by the way, is on vacation this weekend.”
Hagerty on France recalling their ambassador; U.S.-UK-Australia agreement: “The diplomatic aspects that have upset the French, I can understand. I do believe it’s an overreaction though. Perhaps the Biden Administration could have communicated better with them to have kept them in the loop. I’ll leave that for another day. But as I look at what’s happening in the Indo-Pacific, I’m completely supportive of what we’re doing to increase Australia’s capability to bring the UK into the fold as well, because China continues to March on. And the deal that we’ve struck with Australia, with the UK, and ourselves is going to advance our capability so that we’re ever stronger in the Indo-Pacific region. We need to be doing that.”
Hagerty on the need for a strong America: “It’s similar to what I heard when I went to visit NATO just about two weeks ago, the same as when I went to the UK. The whole Biden Administration approach is actually taking us away from our allies. It’s crumbling our cooperation with our allies. NATO is extraordinarily concerned that they can’t rely on us anymore. As a nation, the world needs a strong America. We can’t be leading from behind again. And that’s exactly what they’re seeing. I think they regret comments like President Macron made. America is not back in the way that we need to be back. America is stronger and safer when we lead from the front. That was the case in the prior administration, and we’re seeing a complete reversal of that trend right now.”