U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) on Monday told CNN that those nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to serve in his cabinet will be enacting policies set by the White House after host Jake Tapper asked about potential policy disagreements between Trump and Tulsi Gabbard, who the president-elect nominated to serve as the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).
Hagerty told Tapper that Gabbard was selected by Trump “for a very specific job,” and referenced “questions” raised by Gabbard about the intelligence community that “need to be delivered upon.”
In response to comments about Syria made by Gabbard in 2017, the Tennessee Republican said Trump’s nomination of Gabbard represents a “broadening of the tent” within the Republican Party, but told the network, “at the end of the day, President Trump’s policies are what’s going to drive this administration, and Tulsi Gabbard should be a loyal member of his cabinet and follow those policies.”
Of Gabbard’s 2017 stance on Israel, the senator confirmed, “I’m not hearing concerns that’s going to be, in any way, something that would jeopardize her capability to get through the process with Republicans.”
Hagerty’s comments about Trump setting policies to be enacted by his cabinet members comes after the senator previously said they would be charged with “executing” the president-elect’s agenda.
“I fully expect everybody coming into the cabinet will listen to President Trump, they’ll let him set the policy, and they’ll execute according to that plan,” said Hagerty during a November appearance on ABC.
Pressed about potential disagreements between Trump and his cabinet members, Hagerty told the network, “What I think happens here, though, is there are consequences in President Trump’s cabinet.”
Hagery also doubled down on his support for Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel to serve as the next FBI Director, saying the former Trump administration official is correct to publicly criticize the agency he’s been nominated to lead.
“I think Kash is, in every sense, right to be calling out the team there at the FBI that back in 2016, used a Clinton-fabricated dossier as an excuse to come and spy on the Trump campaign. The whole context and pretext for this Russia thing that hampered the Trump campaign, the first several years of its Administration, all of this emanated from the FBI. All of it needs to be cleaned up.” Hagerty added, “even if you look forward to 2020, the FBI collaborated with [Secretary of State Antony] Blinken and the so-called 51 intelligence experts to hide Hunter Biden’s laptop.”
Both Hagerty and Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) have said they will vote to confirm Patel, as well as Pete Hegseth, who Trump nominated to serve as Secretary of Defense.
Watch Hagerty’s full appearance on “The Lead”:
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
