ICYMI—Hagerty Joins The Big Take on Newsmax to Discuss DHS Funding, Iran, and President Trump’s Leadership

WASHINGTON- On Sunday, United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, joined Ed Henry's The Big Take on Newsmax to discuss Department of Homeland Security funding, domestic security concerns, Iran, and President Trump's decisive leadership.

Partial Transcript

Hagerty on Democrats blocking DHS funding: "I think that absurdity is being put to the test right now. All of America can see that the Democrats are simply playing politics here at a time where we need to be protecting the homeland. If you look back no further than Joe Biden's administration, 1,500 Iranians were apprehended trying to enter our country at the southern border. Biden allowed over half of them into the country. We don't know where they are. These people are unvetted. The consequence of this, it's hard to say, but the concern is that there certainly could be sleeper cells or a lone wolf activity. You don't know. But we need our very best on the ground. We need our forces fully funded here domestically, and the Department of Homeland Security should not be suffering in this way. Again, the Democrats are just playing politics with this. They're supposedly resisting ICE activity. Well, ICE has been fully funded since last year [via the Working Families Tax Cuts Act]. What they're doing though is they're keeping TSA, the, the Coast Guard Secret Service from getting paychecks. The men and women that are doing these jobs are heroic. They need to be fully funded. They need to get their paychecks, and the Democrats need to stop playing politics."

Hagerty on raising the threat level: "I do believe the concerns of the threat are significant. But the last thing I'm going to do is get in front of our authorities who have the most relevant, most current information. It's their call to make. The last thing they need is for me to get on television and start to prognosticate about what it ought to be. Let them do their jobs. But I'll say this: we need to fully fund everybody on the ground so they can do their jobs and so the American public can demonstrate that we support them."

Hagerty on Democrat War Powers push: "This is a time for Americans to come together. We need to lock arms here as a nation and support the fact that we're taking out a deadly regime, one that since 1979 has been basically pushing terror throughout the region. They've got the blood of Americans on their hands going all the way back. Think back to the early 1980s, the Marine barracks in Beirut that was taken out [by an Iran-backed terrorist bombing], over 200 of our Marines were killed in that activity. … Think no further than October of 2023 when we saw Iran-backed Hamas come in and kill 1200 innocent people, 40 American citizens in that group. What we're doing right now is taking out a regime at its most vulnerable point. I would hate to step back and tell my children or grandchildren that when we had the opportunity to do this, to end the largest state sponsor of terror in the world, we failed to do so. President Trump saw this opportunity. I think the rest of the world sees it too. Look at the number of allies that are coming to our aid in support right now. No one's coming to Iran's support. This is something that we need to lock arms together here in the United States. My Democrat colleagues need to stop playing politics. Let's fully fund DHS, and let's support the administration in this activity."

Hagerty on Iranian Americans and the opportunity for freedom: "I talked to an Iranian friend of mine just a little while ago in New York City. I think the entire Iranian population here in the United States, a great diaspora since the 1970s, is thrilled to see the possibility for freedom back in their country. President Trump has made this clear; he has not waged war on Iran. And this gets back to the absurdity of what's probably going to take place from the Democrats this coming week. What he's done is something very surgical, very targeted, that has to do with our own security as a nation, but it also presents an opportunity for the Iranian people to actually take their country back. The majority of them want to take their country back. People are celebrating in the streets right now in Iran and certainly here in America."

Hagerty on America's role and Operation Midnight Hammer: "President Trump has been clear that we are on the side of the Iranian people. He promised them we'd be there. We have now put the Iranian people in a position to take their country back. I would just point out this simple point, this simple fact, and that is that our intelligence throughout this operation has been exquisite. The intelligence that we've had ourselves, the intelligence that we've shared with the Israelis and the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], our team knows a lot about what's happening in that country. And I think that they have very high-level contacts to be able to execute with the level of precision that they have. So I have every confidence that the United States knows the levers. This is going to be a challenging situation, but President Trump is going to continue to maintain maximum pressure. I'll also point this out: the Iranians have lost all control of their airwaves. What's going to happen is that the Israeli Air Force is going to be able to go in and consistently take out these targets. Not only the launch capacity, but also the capacity to make these weapons, these ballistic weapons that have been used to threaten not only neighbors in the region, but they are moving in a direction where they could actually threaten our homeland here in the United States. I'll also mention this: Operation Midnight Hammer [in June 2025] was a complete success in terms of taking out the nuclear capabilities of Iran, but they have again begun to take steps back toward recreating that nuclear capability. President Trump could not have been more clear that it is coming to an end. We will never allow them to possess a nuclear weapon. This operation will make certain that that never happens."

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