BY WADE LITTLETON Tribune Staff Writer

Two days after primaries took place across Tennessee, Sen. Bill Hagerty came to Hamblen County to provide an update on his view from Washington, the war with Iran and how that is affecting everyday citizens “We feel it right here today at the gas pump,” Hagerty said. “I’m optimistic that we’ll get this (with Iran) solved because they don’t have that much left to fight with. Hopefully, we’ll bring that to an end.”

Hagerty indicated that crude oil prices have come down in the last few days, leading to optimism that something between the U.S. and Iran will be brought to a close soon.

“I don’t want to get ahead of Jared Kutchner and Steve Witkoff (Trump presidential advisors), they’re both solid business people,” Hagerty said. “They are not foreign service officers who got us into this mess. (Kutchner and Witcoff) are the ones

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U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., speaks with David Rutherford Thursday morning at the Davy Crockett restaurant in Morristown.

Wade Littleton/Citizen Tribune who came back to tell President Trump that the Iranians are not serious, which led to the initial strike in Iran.”

“The Iranians are the ones who have been doing this to us for decades,” Hagerty said, adding that they, for years ,have signed agreements but haven’t honored them.

“Iran is the largest funder of terror in the world,” Hagerty said. “These people are not rational. All they know is terror, fear and death. The only thing they understand is strength.

“That’s why President Trump put two aircraft carriers in the region while Kutchner and Witkoff are negotiating. Trump has now moved a third aircraft carrier there. They’ve demonstrated that they can escort American ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

“They did it yesterday. They’re holding off, but it sounds like they have the beginnings of a deal. It is through American strength that we can do this. Iran is in a very difficult position right now. We’ll see where Jared and Steve go and hopefully the markets will calm down. This is a mess they’re dealing with.”

Hagerty thinks as gas prices come down, people will start taking a look at what they can actually buy.

He claimed that wages are finally exceeding inflation.

“Trump has reduced the rate of (price) increase, but it’s really hard to get prices to go down unless it is a commodity,” Hagerty said.

He said that when the Iranian representative walked out of negotiations in 2015, John Kerry ran out and urged the representative to return to the negotiation table. This led to a landmark nuclear agreement with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action which following two years of negotiations.

Two years after this took effect, Trump decided not to honor its terms and move forward with his own plan.

Hagerty added that during his term as Ambassador to Japan, he tried to get Japan to stop getting oil from Iran.

“It was not easy,” Hagerty said. “After going through a lot of negotiating with Japan, it wasn’t that they didn’t want to get oil from them, Japan has no resources of its own.”

Finally, Japan agreed and one of Japan’s leaders flew to Iran to tell their leaders in person, hoping that someday Iran’s regime would change and Japan would be able to do business with them again.

In response, Iran attached mines to the sides of two Japanese cargo ships.

With the “Big Beautiful Bill” passed last year, Hagerty said that more incentives have been made available to invest in America than ever before.

“The result of that is massive capital investments are coming into the United States,” he said. “A lot of it is coming into Tennessee. Our prediction right now is about 4% of the Gross National Product growth despite all of the interruptions in Iran. It might be a little less than that. That is much more solid results than certainly President Joe Biden or Barack Obama were able to do.”

The stock market is pushing toward new highs, according to Hagerty.

“Stock markets are forward looking,” Hagerty said. “They can see this investment coming in. The investment begets more jobs and more economic activity. The challenge to us right now is to get through the barrage of media attacks. The majority of the media want to see a change and the democrats back in charge. I think the American people are plenty smart now, they’re wise to the fact that we’re going to get a lot of distorted stories in the media.”

Hagerty says that he doesn’t get back home to Tennessee as he would like because of the senate leadership led by Sen. Chuck Schumer.

“He has decided the best thing he can possibly do to keep everybody stuck in Washington,” Hagerty said. “One reason for that is raw math. We have twice as many Republican senators who are up for reelection as do democrats. To keep us tied up there on procedural maneuvers means that his challengers can attack us more. Another thing is that he (probably) just likes it there. People just don’t realize how maxless they’ve been on the resistance movement.”

Hagerty said that when Presidents Clinton and Obama’s candidates for cabinet and foreign affairs offices were presented at their respective inaugurations, they went through with no problem.

Clinton’s appointees went through with a 98% of approval, he said.

Hagerty said that was not the case when his turn came.

It appears times had changed from Supreme Court nominees on down.

“When I went through during the First Trump administration, 45% of us got held up; I was one of those people,” Hagerty said. “There were ‘cloture’ proceedings, a 30-hour delay to Hagerty’s appointment as Ambassador to Japan, among others. They debated nothing but whatever the particular nominee is. Not a single senator came down to debate, it was meant to slow the (appointment) process down.”

The vote turned out to be 88-12 for Hagerty to become Ambassador to Japan. Due to the cloture proceedings, he was four months late to start his assignment, he said.

In comparison, the second Trump administration’s cloture rate was 100%, per Schumer, Hagerty said.

“Bernie Sanders came down onto the Senate floor last week and claimed that he now has control,” Hagerty said. “There were some anti-Israel bills that he brought forward and got 40 democrats to vote against Israel, whereas Schumer only got seven to vote against Israel.

“Bernie and Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez (AOC) are taking over the Democratic party,” Hagerty said. “It’s just unbelievable.”

Hagerty said that the fight in Tennessee over redistricting of congressional districts due to “gerrymandering” by race.

“I think the legislature will be done by this evening (Thursday,” Hagerty said. “We’re going to redistrict Tennessee and make it 100% red.

“Thank you, Supreme Court threw out race-based ‘gerrymandering,’ in which only the south has been based to this principle. The democrats have gerrymandered the rest of the country, but they’ve forced the South to get everything approved by the Department of Justice. It is difficult to navigate with these career lawyers who are leftist.”

Through redistricting, Republicans can pick up to 20 congressional seats, Hagerty said.

“This could cause a significant shift,” Hagerty said. “Right now, we have a margin of two Republicans in congress. It’s always been so tight because of all of the gerrymandering that has taken place. But they’re taking out the Democrats’ ability to gerrymander due to race. As we level this up, I think you’re going to see a tectonic shift.”

Hagerty said that people are showing up at the state capitol with professionally-made signs and beating the doors due to the redistricting battle.

He said that he thinks by November, the Democratic candidates will be defined and that Republicans will compare favorably at the ballot box.

“When you start to define these candidates, particularly those who Bernie and AOC are endorsing, I think we’re going to see a different result,” Hagerty said. “When you look at these democratic candidates and where they’re going, I don’t think America is really headed in that direction.

“As we start to define that for the American public, I think we’re going to find ourselves in a much better situation.”