{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hagerty.senate.gov/press-releases/2026/04/24/icymi-hagerty-joins-balance-of-power-on-bloomberg-to-discuss-iran-negotiations-federal-reserve-leadership-reconciliation/", "ICYMI\u2014Hagerty Joins\u00a0Balance of Power\u00a0on Bloomberg to Discuss Iran Negotiations, Federal Reserve Leadership, Reconciliation", "2026-04-24", "2026", "2026-04", "Republican", "Senate", "TN", "Bill Hagerty", "H000601", "www.hagerty.senate.gov", "hagerty", "https://www.hagerty.senate.gov/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014Yesterday, United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senate Banking Committee and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, joined Balance of Power on Bloomberg to discuss Iran, energy markets, Kevin Warsh\u2019s nomination to lead the Federal Reserve, and reconciliation.\n\nPartial Transcript\n\nHagerty on President Trump\u2019s negotiating position with Iran: \u201cHe\u2019s got all the cards, and what he is doing is negotiating. I think that\u2019s what seems to shock people here in Washington sometimes, the fact that President Trump isn\u2019t telegraphing every move. I know that frustrates many, but at the same time, I think it puts them [the United States] in the best possible negotiating position.\u201d\n\nHagerty on Iran\u2019s leadership: \u201cI think the Iranian regime needs to figure this out. It reminds me of the old Thelma and Louise scene where they\u2019re heading off the cliff. That\u2019s the Iranian leadership, and you\u2019ve got the moderate terrorist arguing with the super-aggressive terrorist over control of the wheel. Meanwhile, they\u2019re about to drive the thing over the cliff. They should take the off-ramp.\u201d\n\nHagerty on dealing with the Iranian regime: \u201cI think anybody who shouts \u2018Death to America\u2019, \u2018Death to Israel\u2019 should be considered [a terrorist]. And as we know, Iran\u2019s been the largest state sponsor of terror in the world. Not the 90 million Iranians that we\u2019re talking about, I think they\u2019ve been subject to this sort of leadership.\u201d\n\nHagerty on military options and the Strait of Hormuz: \u201cI think that\u2019s going to be up to the president and to the generals on the ground, but no options are off the table. And as we see what\u2019s happening, and we\u2019ve heard reports that they\u2019re putting mines back in the Strait of Hormuz, the president\u2019s not going to tolerate that. And I think that that message needs to be made loud and clear.\u201d\n\nHagerty on oil markets and pressure on Iran: \u201cOil still hasn\u2019t gotten where it was after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Not that I\u2019m hoping that it\u2019ll go higher, certainly not. But I think the markets are looking at this. There are a number of mitigating factors that are taking place. We\u2019re moving more [oil] certainly out of the United States of America right now. Pipelines are being opened. I think that it\u2019s a different story today than it might\u2019ve been even four years ago. The real key, though, is long-term, medium to long-term. We need to solve this problem. The Strait of Hormuz has been a sword over the entire world economy that the Iranians have held for years and years. I\u2019m talking decades. This has always been a concern. This has always been the threat that they\u2019ve had, and they\u2019re making every attempt they can to exercise it. But I\u2019ll make this point very clearly, their options there\u2014meaning the Iranian regime\u2019s options\u2014are becoming more limited every day.\u201d\n\nHagerty on Iran\u2019s weakening position: \u201cTheir munitions have been largely destroyed. Their [naval] capabilities are basically at the bottom of the sea. And if you talk about timing, their capacity to store oil is being consumed right now. Once that capacity is full, because they can\u2019t sell this oil, they can\u2019t move it out because of the blockade. Once that is full, and we\u2019re talking a matter of days, that\u2019s going to be a huge problem on the Iranian economy because they\u2019re going to have to start shutting down the production facilities then. That\u2019s, I think, the breaking point. And the cards are much more on President Trump\u2019s side of the table right now than they\u2019re on the Iranian regime.\u201d\n\nHagerty on Iran\u2019s past attacks and Prime Minister Abe: \u201cThey do have the capacity to [terrorize]. That\u2019s what they\u2019ve been in business doing. When I was U.S. Ambassador to Japan, one of my jobs was to ask the Japanese to stop buying Iranian crude oil. That was part of the maximum pressure campaign. It was not an easy set of conversations, but Prime Minister Abe ultimately agreed to do that. He went to Iran to deliver that message and tell Iran personally. The disrespect shown to the Japanese by the Iranian regime was unbelievable. They sent two of these speedboats that we\u2019re talking about to go out and attach limpet mines\u2014they\u2019re magnetic mines\u2014on the sides of the cargo ships, and they blew them up. That\u2019s who we\u2019re dealing with. So, very difficult to deal with these people.\u201d\n\nHagerty on why action was needed now: \u201cPresident Trump has stepped up, and he said he\u2019s going to deal with it. I think most everybody knows this, but there is a math problem here that we\u2019re trying to solve. And that math problem is quite simple. The pace at which the Iranian regime was building ballistic missiles was ramping up dramatically. And we have an exquisite set of capabilities to take those out. You\u2019ve seen Patriot missiles go and take them out. But they can make ballistic missiles more rapidly than we can make Patriot missiles. And at some point, they might have overwhelmed our capacity to take them out. They were at 2,500 ballistic missiles. You start working that math, you can see why President Trump moved our military capabilities into the region while he tried diplomatic efforts. I think Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner did an amazing job, but they also read the room. The Iranians weren\u2019t serious about a diplomatic solution at that point in time. But the timing is relevant to the capacity of our military to be able to address Iran. And we were reaching that capacity now. The 2,500 [missiles in Iran\u2019s arsenal are] down to a fraction of what it was. And we\u2019re in a much better position to deal with the threat. And, I think the world has seen what the Iranians would do if they were able to obtain nuclear capabilities, if they could have gotten a ballistic missile set beyond our ability to deal with it. They\u2019d have had all the time they wanted to develop their nuclear capabilities. President Trump clearly understood that. Our military understands that. That\u2019s why it had to be dealt with. Now.\u201d\n\nHagerty on Kevin Warsh and the Federal Reserve: \u201cThere are a number of discussions going on right now, and I\u2019m not going to get ahead of those discussions, but I spoke with both Senator Tillis and Senator Scott last night. Senator Scott is the chair of the [Banking] Committee. And I\u2019ve certainly had a number of conversations with Kevin Warsh. I think he\u2019s absolutely the right person for the job to lead the Fed, and he should be ready to go. I think he is ready to go. We\u2019ve had the hearing. Everybody\u2019s heard the statements that Senator Tillis has made, but we\u2019ve got a lot of Democrats on the Banking Committee as well. They could move to get him out of committee just as easily. And most of these Democrats have already supported Kevin when he was up for Fed Governor before. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s just Thom Tillis and his issue, but we\u2019ve got all of the Democrats in the Senate Banking Committee that have the opportunity to step up and help us move a Fed chair into place. If they\u2019re not going to do that, then we\u2019re back to the same place we are with the shutdown of the government back last fall. What we\u2019re having to deal with right now is Homeland Security. I hate to think that they\u2019re going to shut down or block the next Fed Chairman, who is as eminently qualified as Kevin.\u201d\n\nHagerty on reconciliation and Homeland Security: \u201cSenator Thune is a straight shooter. I think that he\u2019s certainly going to tell you the way it is, but there\u2019s going to be a lot of momentum here. There\u2019s a great desire by the White House, certainly on the Senate side, and I think our friends in the House realize that sometimes the Senate has a different set of rules. It\u2019s not as easy for us to pass [legislation] as it may be in the House. So there\u2019ll be continued negotiations going on, but I\u2019m optimistic we\u2019ll get the right answer here. We need the Department of Homeland Security open.\u201d\n\nHagerty on security risks and the border: \u201cWe were just talking about the situation in Iran. The notion that there could be sleeper cells here is very real. If you think about it, in the last administration between 2021 and 2024, there were 1500 Iranians who were encountered at our southern border. Half of those were released into the United States. So, the odds of there being some type of sleeper mechanism here is greater than zero. We need Homeland Security back open to deal with this. This is the worst possible time to be shutting down the Department of Homeland Security. And I think our colleagues in the House recognize that too.\u201d\n\nHagerty on FISA: \u201cThere are going to be more discussions next week. Again, I don\u2019t want to get ahead of those discussions because they\u2019re delicate. It\u2019s important that we get it right, but I\u2019m optimistic that we get to a resolution here soon.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-04-25T05:38:36Z", "2026-04-25T05:40:21Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hagerty.senate.gov/press-releases/2026/04/24/icymi-hagerty-joins-balance-of-power-on-bloomberg-to-discuss-iran-negotiations-federal-reserve-leadership-reconciliation/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.7775639425963163, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}