ICYMI—Hagerty Joins Varney & Co. on Fox Business to Discuss Iran, Russia, and Debanking

NEW YORK-Today, United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations, Appropriations, and Banking Committees, joined Varney & Co. on Fox Business to discuss the latest in Iran, President Donald Trump's recent diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the weaponization of the financial system against conservatives.

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Partial Transcript

Hagerty on Iran: I was with the president over the weekend, and he certainly is quite tired of dealing with the Iranians. I think you could see it from his comments in Montana yesterday. The back and forth with the Iranians is extraordinarily difficult to navigate. You don't know who is running the place, and frankly, I'm not sure they know who is running the place, but this is coming to a point where I think they're doing the old playbook where they are hoping for a different outcome in the election. Certainly, they're hoping for an Obama-like result of Congress changing hands. I don't think that's going to happen. One, I don't think that Congress is going to change hands, and two, President Trump will certainly be the president of the United States the day after the election, no matter what happens. I think the Iranians need to wake up and realize they're not going to get the same type of Obama-Biden break or relief after this election, even though they're obviously playing toward November.

Hagerty on America's recent oil agreement with Russia: I wouldn't say that [the president] is leaning toward Putin. If you look at the [Lindsey O. Graham Russia Sanctions Act] that he just signed into law a couple of weeks ago, that put even more forceful sanctions in place that we can deploy against Russia. I think what he's trying to address with this diesel deal is frankly the world markets right now and bringing costs down. Diesel has become a real issue. The Iranians are trying to create it and make it more of an issue. He's trying to deal with multiple complex factors here, but long term, he's got the tools. We've enabled him to have the tools from the legislative branch. It's certainly something that President Trump is managing-a multi-variable calculation here as he addresses it-but at the same time, he has got to maintain economic security and energy security for the United States and our allies. That's the immediate benefit here. And longer term, I think he's got to keep Putin's eye on the ball. Look, we have these sanctions that are incredibly forceful. They're going to have a real impact, and Putin needs to learn to work with us, not against us.

Hagerty on debanking and the weaponization of the financial system against conservatives: I've spoken with the heads of the major banks. This is a very real issue. Supervisors are unelected. They use unprinted guidance that can't be disclosed publicly, and they put enormous pressure. They-meaning the unelected bureaucrats-put enormous pressure on our banking system to buckle under, to debank everyone, from the president's family to the small operation selling a MAGA hat on the corner. So that is going to come to an end. They're going to depoliticize the [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency]. It's long due. [Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould] is doing a great job of coming through and exposing what we all knew. This has gone on since Lois Lerner; this is another Choke Point operation. This is the Democrat playbook to utilize the bureaucracy to come in and punish their foes.

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