Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) signaled during an interview over the weekend that President-elect Donald Trump will once again put the clamps on Iran as he did during his first term in office.
Hagerty made the remarks during a Sunday CBS News interview with Margaret Brennan on “Face The Nation” while talking about what Trump’s foreign policy will look like.
“Iran, we had them shut down,” he said. “Iran was broke. Now they’re able to fund terror all over the world. We had a maximum pressure campaign.”
He noted that they were not able to do business with other foreign adversaries during Trump’s first term.
“They were not able to do that under the Trump administration,” he said. “That’s why we saw peace breaking out in the Middle East. Without Iran being shut down, which is what we did under the maximum pressure campaign – President Trump led this.”
“We were able to move our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Everybody said it couldn’t happen. It did,” he continued. “The Abraham Accords. Peace was breaking out in the Middle East because Iran could not fund terror.”
He noted that the likelihood of Israel getting the hostages back from Hamas has increased because the terrorist organization realizes it’s no longer going to get a free pass like it did under President Joe Biden.
“It seems that the entire environment is shifting right now,” he said. “Because they see new leadership coming in. And I’m encouraged by that, and I think we’ll have new opportunities to – again, President Trump was able to deliver peace through strength.”
“I think that’s on the way, and I’m optimistic what it might lead to,” he continued.
He said that Trump would “focus on the root cause” of the problems in the Middle East, which he noted was Iran.
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Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) says “it seems that the entire environment is shifting right now because they see new leadership coming in, and I’m encouraged by that.” pic.twitter.com/1GmqB0lOTh
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 10, 2024