ICYMI—Hagerty Joins Varney & Co. on Fox Business to Discuss Debanking Conservatives, Support for Hegseth, Panama Canal

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 Varney & Co. on Fox Business to discuss the egregious debanking of conservatives, his strong support for Pete Hegseth, and President Donald Trump's concerns about China's influence on the Panama Canal.

Partial Transcript

Hagerty on banks debanking conservatives: "I certainly side with President Trump on this one because I've seen it myself. Look, you've got these big banks that have DEI and ESG narratives that they're trying to follow. You've got regulators; I think that's the most pernicious aspect of this. You've got regulators here in Washington, bank supervisors that don't have to put out a written warning. What they have to do is suggest that perhaps there's some reputational risk associated with a particular entity or a particular customer, even Barron Trump has had difficulty getting a bank account. I think President Trump has felt this in his own family. Christian ministry groups are having a difficult time. It's absolutely amazing to me and, I think, to all Americans that the banking system isn't open and available to everybody in America. We're going to change that. Now that the gavel has shifted here in the Senate, the Banking Committee is under Republican control. We fully intend to take supervisory action to get a very hard look at this. And on the Executive Branch side, I can guarantee you President Trump is going to dig into this too. It's got to come to an end."

Hagerty on his strong support for Pete Hegseth: "Pete is also a hometown favorite for me. He's from Tennessee. I've been friends with Pete for years; I'm delighted to see him into this position. I think if anybody watched the four and a half hours of Pete's confirmation hearing, what they've seen is somebody that's patriotic, someone that's bright, someone that's energetic. Pete's the type of person that's going to be transformative at the Pentagon at a time when we really need it. Pete has been clear: he's going to be focused on lethality and competence, not on pronouns. And he is going to be the type of person that inspires, that helps us recruit and retain the type of military personnel that we need. We're in a great deficit right now; that's about to change when Pete Hegseth becomes our next Secretary of Defense, which he will […] [Pete has] the warfighter's mentality. He understands what they need, and I think he's going to be a shot in the arm for the Pentagon. It really is going to be a good, positive move."

Hagerty on the Panama Canal: "David, as you well know, Chinese entities have contracts and operate on both ends of the Panama Canal. I don't think [President] Jimmy Carter ever anticipated this when he gave the Panama Canal away. This is a strategic asset that was built with American dollars and American lives, frankly. And it's something that we need to take very seriously. I've negotiated with President Trump in the past when I was U.S. Ambassador to Japan. He delivered the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement, the U.S.-Japan Digital Trade Agreement; I was deeply involved in those negotiations. And one of the things I know for sure is [that] you don't get ahead of the president."

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