U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty criticized the Biden administration’s competence, its handling of Afghanistan, the energy crisis and how it affects the situation in Ukraine, and discussed a recent trip he took to Japan during an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star that occurred after a Wednesday afternoon joint press event held on border security with Governor Bill Lee outside his Nashville district office.
The senator said he was bothered by the Biden administration’s handling of foreign policy.
“I think I am very rightly concerned about the Biden administration’s competence to execute anything. After the failure in Afghanistan, I think the world is concerned about the Biden administration’s ability to execute,” he said.
“I actually just got back from a trip to Japan with two of my Senate colleagues,” he continued. “We were there to let them know that we haven’t taken our eye off the ball in terms of the threat that’s being posed by China and the Taiwan Strait, what’s happening with North Korea, and the fact that Russia operates there as well.”
“Our allies in Japan, frankly the strongest allies we could have in the Indo-Pacific region, were very concerned,” he said. “They asked me to please rethink our energy strategy here in America because the war that Joe Biden has waged on the domestic energy industry has created shortages that are being felt around the world.”
Hagerty brought the conversation to the Biden administration’s failures on energy.
“If you think about it, Joe Biden precipitated the price increase in energy that benefited Vladimir Putin, the number two producer of energy, in a way that may be actually funding the war on Ukraine,” he said.
The Tennessee U.S. senator explained how the Biden administration’s energy affects Japan. ”
Our policies are all wrong under the Biden administration and the Japanese realize that, because they want to be massive importer of energy from America,” he said. “When I served as ambassador to Japan, I argued that they should be a big importer of American energy because energy security and national security are linked hand-in-hand.”
“The Japanese are very concerned that now, with Europe’s dependence on Russia, the Biden administration’s war on oil and gas – we’ve got less ‘L and G’ to send and that they may start diverting more of it to Europe and less to Japan,” said Hagerty. “They are very concerned about their energy security. They’re very concerned about what China is doing and how China is going to interpret the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I encouraged our Japanese colleagues to work arm-in-arm with us to force President Xi to recalculate.”
Hagerty ended the foreign policy conversation by making a point about North Korea.
“We’re going to continue to work together to find ways to deal with North Korea because North Korea is back with a vengeance after Afghanistan fell,” he said.
The Star previously asked Hagerty why he didn’t sign a letter signed by 42 of his Republican U.S. Senate colleagues and demanding action in support of Ukraine. The letter, co-drafted by Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT), urged the Biden administration to give the Ukraine tools like fighter jets and other support capabilities from the United States, NATO allies, and other European partners in order to enable them to set up their own no-fly zone.
In his response, Hagerty discussed his reservations about the Biden administration’s handling of the process.
“Because I continue to have reservations about this administration’s ability to execute. When this was first brought up, you had Secretary of State Blinken give the green light to do it, and then a day later the Department of Defense came and blocked it,” he said. “I’ve asked for a secure briefing, a classified briefing, to understand what was the rationale for that and I intend to get that this week, but I didn’t have the information I needed to sign off.”
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR, Twitter, and Parler.
