WASHINGTON—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, today joined Your World With Neil Cavuto on Fox News to discuss his support for President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on his support for RFK Jr.’s nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services: “Yes, I certainly would [support him]. I’ve met with him a number of times. I’ve really found my engagements with him to be quite refreshing. Look, Neil, he’s asking tough questions, questions that need to be asked. And if you think about what’s happening here in America, chronic disease is on the rise. We need to be asking these tough questions. We need to give more transparency to people, and we need to make America healthy again, to put it into the President’s words.”
Hagerty on his support for Pete Hegseth’s nomination to be Secretary of Defense: “I support Pete; he’s gaining momentum every day that he’s here. He spends a lot of time in my office—he’s one of my constituents—but I think, again, he’s gaining momentum. I feel good about his ultimate confirmation, as people get to know him and hear directly from him, as opposed to these salacious allegations that are coming from unnamed or anonymous sources. I think they’re becoming more and more comfortable with him as a person. And I’ll say this: the fact that you bring a leader who’s energetic like Pete in, very bright, a graduate of Princeton and Harvard, but energetic and able to help us deal with the fact that we’ve got a real retention problem in the military. We’ve got a recruitment problem in the military. Pete’s going to be the type of leader that can inspire, and I’m delighted to see him at the point he is. And I think, again, his momentum is positive. I look forward to seeing him confirmed.”
Hagerty on the reconciliation process: “I actually think it’s going to be sorted out over the course of the next couple of weeks. We all want to see this done as quickly as possible. That’s certainly dealing with the border, dealing with the tax package, the extensions there, and dealing with U.S. energy, getting us back to the position of energy dominance. All of those are absolutely critical. I’d like to see them happen on day one, but again, Congress moves a little bit more slowly than that. But as soon as possible, whether we take them as one unified package or as separate packages, I want to see them implemented as quickly as we possibly can. And if it does turn out that the packages are separated, that doesn’t mean that we have any less interest in getting the second package done. What it means is that it’s just taking a little bit longer. We’re moving posthaste with what we have ready, but again, [the sequence] remains to be seen. President Trump’s team will be working with leadership here in the Senate and the House. Again, I think the overarching comment I’d like to make: we want to see this done as quickly as possible.”
Hagerty on the drones flying over New Jersey: “I certainly believe the same thing [that the Biden Administration knows more than they’re revealing]. [The Pentagon has] got to know what’s going on. The fact that they’re not telling us means that they haven’t figured out how they’re going to spin it, but they need to explain to the American people what’s happening, because it’s creating a great deal of concern. I certainly think if it were a nefarious source, if it were a foreign source, which they seem to be comfortable [saying] that’s not the case, they would’ve dealt with it differently. So, my sense is [that] they do know what’s going on. We’re just going to have to get them to be a little bit more transparent with the American people.”
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