United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, appeared on Fox News’ America Reports to discuss current issues in Gaza, the United Nations’ involvement, and President Donald Trump’s approach to Russian threats.
During his appearance, Hagerty addressed concerns about humanitarian aid distribution in Gaza and criticized both Hamas and the United Nations for their roles in the crisis. He said, “It certainly is a propaganda war…President Trump is absolutely right. The solution to this is for Hamas to surrender, to step down, and to turn over the hostages. Instead, Hamas is running a black market operation, and the U.N. [United Nations] and its UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency] foundation have been complicit in this. That’s why we’ve set up the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation [GHF], and it’s working. We’ve gone around the U.N. because they’re ineffective. And rather than having the U.N. criticize us and the GHF, they should be working with us. Let’s put Hamas out of business. Let’s feed the people. I just heard from Ambassador [Mike] Huckabee that a four-kilo bag of sugar–that’s just under ten pounds–is selling for $200 on the black market because Hamas controls the supply. It’s terrible. It’s got to come to an end. And we can’t be complicit in this. That’s why the U.N. needs to wake up, and that’s why we need to support the GHF.”
Hagerty also discussed efforts by American officials working outside traditional channels: “The propaganda war is what Hamas is engaged in. I’m thankful that Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, a good friend of mine, is extremely competent and capable. Now that he’s on the ground, he’s going to be in a position, along with Ambassador Huckabee, to see the solution. And I think they’ll be able to work it out. But again, the solution seems to be to work around the U.N. to create our own solution with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and distribute the food. That’s what’s been happening. That has been working according to Ambassador Huckabee. We need to support that, rather than going back to the failed operations of UNRWA and allowing Hamas to continue its black market operations on the ground.”
Turning attention overseas toward Russia-Ukraine tensions, Hagerty commented on President Trump’s military posture: “I certainly think the former Russian president has it wrong. President Trump does not play games. He’s very serious about this. President Trump is rightfully very frustrated by the fact that we’re not making greater progress between Russia and Ukraine. We are losing hundreds of thousands of lives on the Russian side. Tens of thousands of lives on the Ukrainian side. This is a waste of human life. It needs to come to an end. Biden, of course, created all the conditions and basically facilitated this war. President Trump is trying to bring it to an end.” Hagerty continued by emphasizing recent military actions as evidence: “This is not helpful to have the former Russian president come out and say this sort of thing. And I think President Trump’s movement of submarines demonstrates the fact that he is not playing.”
Hagerty concluded by calling for increased economic pressure against Russia through secondary sanctions: “This is going to have to happen.We need secondary sanctions.Chinaand India need to stop buying Russian energy.We need to put maximum pressure on Russia.We need to bring their economy to a halt.That’s the way to end this war.President Trump is dead serious about this,and I hope our allies are listening.”
