Iran feels "emboldened" to take actions against the United States and its allies because the Biden administration has not taken a consistent response to its aggressions, Sen. Bill Hagerty said Sunday.
"We've been highly inconsistent in what we do with Iran from an economic standpoint and a diplomatic standpoint," the Tennessee Republican commented on "Fox News Sunday," pointing out that when former President Donald Trump was in office, a maximum pressure campaign was in play that brought the Iranian currency reserves to below $8 billion.
"As soon as Joe Biden came into office, they stopped enforcing sanctions," said Hagerty, who served in Trump's administration as U.S. ambassador to Japan from 2017 to 2019. "Billions of dollars began to flow. They have enriched themselves by over $100 billion in terms of illicit oil sales, and it continues just because the Biden administration wants to appease the Iranian regime."
Further, the United States, from a diplomatic standpoint, has been sending mixed messages to Israel, said Hagerty.
"We talk about cease-fires; we talk about sending humanitarian aid into Gaza; and we talk about putting conditions on aid," he said. "We've allowed Iran to enrich itself and repopulate Hamas and ... we need to send a clear diplomatic message to get the situation to calm down. We have to maintain freedom of navigation operation in the sea. We cannot cede that to Iran."
Hagerty also discussed the ongoing discussion concerning Senate Republicans' call to block movement on the Ukraine funding package without border policy amendments and said he thinks Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer need to get the message that Republicans are serious.
"You know, this is destabilizing our country," Hagerty said. "The fentanyl coming in is killing our kids, and cities are overwhelmed. We have many many people here on the terrorist watchlist. We do not know what they're going to do. The risk is going up exponentially. We have to deal with that now."
But the Biden administration has been clear that it wants to destabilize the border, he said.
"They are encouraging as many people to flood into the nation as they possibly can," said Hagerty. "The blue states' populations are leaving and [this will] help them in the calculation of congressional seats going forward and electoral votes."
Trump, though, had the border practically shut down, and his policies are still available to use, said Hagerty.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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