ICYMI—Hagerty Joins The Sunday Briefing on Fox News to Discuss Iran, U.S. Military Operations, Homeland Security

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 The Sunday Briefing on Fox News to discuss U.S. military operations against Iran, support for American service members, and the importance of fully funding the Department of Homeland Security.

Partial Transcript

Hagerty on the loss of U.S. Service Members: "These are some of the most difficult messages ever. I think back to what happened in Afghanistan at Abbey Gate [in August 2021]. I had to call Ryan Knauss's parents. He was one of the 13 service members killed in that event. This is one of the toughest things that one has to do, and I feel for the families. But I'd say this, you add these recent casualties to the long list of what's happened since this regime took control back in 1979. You think back to the Beirut Marine barracks bombing, over 200 American lives taken. Through what happened on October 7, 2023, when 1,200 people were slaughtered again by Hamas, the proxy of Iran, over 40 Americans included in that number, as well as hostages. This continues to add up. What President [Donald] Trump has done is taken decisive action to make certain that Iran no longer will have this capability to terror throughout the region."

Hagerty on Democrat efforts to constrain the President: "I think the Democrats will fail on this as well. Their only play seems to be resistance, and what we need to be doing is coming together. This is a time when America needs to step up and lock arms-not only as Americans, but also with our allies. I think what we're going to see is our allies in the region stepping forward as well. Iran has made the woeful decision to launch attacks on its [neighbors] throughout the region. They're going to step up and be aligned with us. And if you look at the allies of Iran-I'm talking about China, Russia, Venezuela, North Korea-they're not doing anything. They certainly didn't step up during the 12-day war. I think Iran realizes it's isolated. This axis of evil that's emerged, they are isolated, and they're going to be further isolated now. President Trump will have far more leverage in dealing with all of them."

Hagerty on the path forward: "Let's take the off-ramp into context of what the objective is. The objective here is to take out Iran's short-range ballistic missile capabilities. We've taken a significant first step on Saturday. We're going to continue to do this-not only to take out their stockpiles, but to take out their ability to launch. Now that the Israelis have taken out all of the air power and air control from Iran, we have free rein to go in and hunt and seek and destroy these capabilities. If you think about what Iran did after our bunker bombs several months ago, we told them that was the end of the nuclear program. We completely destroyed it. President Trump was clear that Midnight Hammer was a complete success. Now what have they done? Started moving back in the direction of creating nuclear capabilities. It is over. President Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have had enough of this. It's over. I think the regime sees this. They may be taking some last-ditch measures, but their days are numbered. And everyone in the region is celebrating this. Just look at the photos, the images of people on the streets of Iran. Now is a generational opportunity for them to take their country back."

Hagerty on domestic security risks: "We've been concerned about this since Joe Biden collapsed the border back in 2021. Millions of people have come into the country unvetted. We don't know who's here, and sleeper cells certainly are a real concern. I think the last thing we should be doing right now is defunding the Department of Homeland Security, which is exactly what the Democrats have done. We need to get back to fully funding that and making certain that our homeland is safe and secure."

Hagerty on DHS funding negotiations: "It's up to the Democrats. They've been so far completely unserious. They say they're doing this to block ICE activities. We funded ICE last year [via the Working Families Tax Cuts Act]. Again, this is just another irresponsible "resistance" move by the Democrats because this seems to be the only play they have in their playbook. We need to lock arms right now and realize that America is standing at the precipice of major change in the world. We can lead it in a very positive direction. President Trump is doing this, taking on challenges that prior presidents have always shirked from dealing with. We've stepped up and dealt with Iran. They had 2,500 ballistic missiles. They were going to 8,000. We stepped in and stopped that. That ability to harass and maim people throughout the region. That is now coming to an end. We should be working together on this. We should be supporting one another. I think America will broadly support this effort."

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