ICYMI—Hagerty JoinsThe Sunday Briefing on Fox News to Discuss Iran, Blanche Confirmation and the SAVE America Act

Washington-On Sunday, United States Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations, Appropriations, and Banking Committees, joined The Sunday Briefing on Fox News to discuss the latest in Iran, Todd Blanche's pending confirmation and the SAVE America Act.

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Partial Transcript

Hagerty on Iran: We continue to maintain the strategic advantage and Iran's strategic capabilities continue to be degraded. If you think about it from a military standpoint, now we have other neighbors in the region joining us, dealing militarily with Iran. That [should be] quite concerning to the Iranian regime. The other aspect of this is the fact that the economic sanctions that [U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent] and his team at Treasury have been imposing are having a dramatic effect on the Iranian economy. The question is, how much more can they take? Their economy is shut off; their economy is shut down. The military componentry has been devastated, and now we have other players in the region joining the United States to deal with Iran in a way that they've never seen before. I'm certainly optimistic that President Trump is going to make certain that at the end the goal is accomplished, that is no nuclear capability for Iran. I'd like to see this done sooner than later, I think the rest of America would, too.

Hagerty on the Middle East's Maritime Defense Coalition against Iran: Iran would like to destabilize the entire region because they'd like to control the entire region. And the fact is that neighbors [in the Middle East] are stepping up and realizing that they have a role to play here. They're going to be the most immediately impacted, and frankly, given Iran's military attacks on everybody in the neighborhood, that's become painfully clear. I welcome the fact that these nations are stepping up, that they're joining us, and I think this is going to be a regional solution to a problem that has been very specific for 47 years. It's time to bring it to an end, and I think we get there much more rapidly with allies like Saudi Arabia and others stepping into the fray and working arm-in-arm and side-by-side with us. And again, I think the sooner we can put this to conclusion the better everybody will be in the world.

Hagerty on conflicting viewpoints regarding the conflict in Iran: The president takes advice from multiple sources. I'm honored by the fact that he reaches out to me from time to time, but he is constantly absorbing information. He is constantly trying to deal with the situation on the ground. And I think what you have [Vice President J.D. Vance] doing is indicating there are considerations here that are very real. The president needs to hear all of those considerations. The one person that the president cannot fire is the other person that stood elected alongside [him], and that's Vice President Vance. I think Vice President Vance takes it seriously upon himself. He has told this to me, that he needs to sound out every concern that could possibly exist, and I think you see another example of it right here. At the end of the day though, I'll come back to this: We hold the strategic advantage. President Trump has been incredibly clear. He will not allow the Iranian regime to have nuclear capacity. And I think President Trump's patience is worn quite thin. So, with this current ceasefire, we're at the verge of being ready to unveil and unleash a tremendous amount of power on Iran. They need to pay attention to this, and they need to pay attention to the fact that other neighbors in the region are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with [the United States] right now. I think this [conflict] is going to come to an end very soon.

Hagerty on Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's confirmation and the Anti-Weaponization Fund: I know [Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R- has been working hard to get both [Senator Tom Tillis, R-N.C.,] and [Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas,] to a place of comfort. But I also say this: I wholeheartedly disagree with the notion that this is something that's undeserved. The [Department of Justice (DOJ) during the Biden Administration] did attack many people. Several people on my staff were targeted and weaponized by the DOJ… The hurt and harm were very real… I'm not looking for any compensation, but I do think that justice needs to be served here. And to say that there is nothing here to look at the weaponization fund is just evidence that something very, very bad did happen under the Biden DOJ. There should be accountability, however that takes form. I don't think that we need to just sweep this under the rug. I think there needs to be an acknowledgement. I'm willing to accept Todd Blanche's word that this fund will not be put into motion. I think Todd Blanche is a very qualified nominee, I'm looking forward to getting him confirmed.

Hagerty on the SAVE America Act: There are 50 [Senate Republicans] or more that are willing to push this through, but we need more Democrats to get to 60 votes if we're going to pass [the SAVE America Act] as it stands. What we're focused on right now is a reconciliation product. [Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.,] was working on this before his untimely departure, bless his heart. But we are, again, working on a product that I think we can use the reconciliation process, which only requires a [simple] majority vote, which we can deliver. We are navigating that process right now. This is not an easy situation when you have every Democrat in the Senate opposed to any type of election integrity. I think it's quite embarrassing for the Democratic Party, and people should be asking why they're doing this-What's their underlying motive? But at the same time, I'm ready to stay here to get this done in whatever form it requires. We do have a vehicle that is under consideration right now that I think we can get significant elements of the SAVE America Act passed.

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