Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) on Wednesday introduced President Joe Biden’s nominee to be the ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting.
Hagerty, who served in the same position from 2017 to 2019, described Emanuel as “a qualified and capable nominee.”
“During my tenure, tensions were remarkably high with North Korea launching multiple ballistic missiles over Japan, and communist China threatening the position in the East China Sea. The Japanese people and the world needed to hear directly from the U.S. ambassador when those threats occurred,” Hagerty said when expressing the importance of filling the vacant position.
“Today we have a great threat from communist China towards our mutual friend, Taiwan. This requires a strong and unified response from both the U.S. And Japan. Mayor Emanuel understands this critical circumstance.”
However, Emanuel has faced criticism from the far-left of the Democratic Party over his handling of a police shooting when he was mayor of Chicago.
Hagerty argued Emanuel’s domestic policy decisions are unrelated to his potential position.
“I’m sure I would have disagreed with Rahm Emanuel on almost every one of the domestic political postures, he might have taken here as well. That’s not the issue here. The issue has to do with our foreign policy. It has to do with a strong America,” the senator told Chad Pergram of Fox News.
During questioning, Hagerty expressed concern over Greg Kelly, a Tennessean and former Nissan executive who has been detained in Japan.
Following Hagerty’s questioning, Emanuel pledged to make Kelly a “top priority,” if confirmed.
“I’ve already started to inquire about this and I want a report on my desk and … if you start asking that, that goes from here to up here as a top priority,” Emmanuel said. “This is not just another piece of business to be checked out. I’m going to be approaching this subject as a former U.S. congressman, who knows what it means when you have a constituent at heart.”
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Cooper Moran is a reporter for The Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
I thought Dr. Sethi would have made a better senator. At least we knew where he and his mom stood on illegal immigration.
This is really bazaar. Is Obama 2.0 really that powerful that they can flip a TN Senator?
I guess constituent loyalty was too much to expect after they flipped L.A.
What the Hell? Hagerty is a clown!
Unbelievable!
Why is it weird to me that Senator Bill Hagerty is endorsing Rahm “Never Let a Good Emergency go to Waste” Emanuel, a top-tier Obama crony who was up to his eye balls in the entire Russiagate character assassination of Donald Trump? Would this have anything to do with Hagerty’s US Chamber of Commerce endorsement getting paid back? America has over 300 million citizens and Emanuel is this country’s best choice? I think not. This stinks more than last night’s fish casserole.
There has to be some reason that Dems and Deep State need to get a character like Emanuel out of the country, and into a safe house in Japan. Once he gets immunity to Japanese law as an ambassador and in the Ambassador’s mansion in Japan, he is untouchable.
And the RINO shows his true colors yet again…Vote ALL incumbants out.
Hagerty us really exposing his RINO tendencies! Rahm is a hard left Obama administration official! Hagerty kept his promise to Mitch McConnell and broke his promise to Tennesseans to support Trump snd the voter integrity act! Hagerty continues to be more of a Washington insider while disregarding Tennesseans! Hagerty has a loony history of supporting RINOs lije McConnell, Mitt Romney, George W Bush and Tennesseans most recent unpopular governor Bill Haslam! Hagerty is out of Touch with Tennesseans!!
Rahm is one of the biggest swamp slimeballs there is.
apparently bill is a swamp creature too!
Are you kidding me? What is Hagerty thinking? Rahm Emanuel is about as far left, and anti-American as one can get. Remember, he’s one of Obama’s “fundamentally transform America” guys. Allowing him to become our Ambassador to Japan is a horrible idea!
Japan is one of our key allies in the fight against the ambitions of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party. Putting a person like Emanuel in there is akin to throwing a box of 22 LR ammo into a camp fire. You’ll be lucky if you just lose an eye!
This confirms something that I knew from the start, Hagerty is the wrong man. Tennessee can do much better than this. Hagerty must go!
I agree 100%. It is interesting to see how Obama 2.0 / Deep State puts a tentacle into the heart of Japan by having Rahm Emanuel in as Japan Ambassador. Japan will be the last bulwark and defense against China aggression in the region. This way Obama 2.0 / Deep State will have a completed intelligence network into Japan. The nature of Japan’s Defense posture is already changing. They are working on their new stealth fighter Mitsubishi F-3. Japan is to be offered a fifth-generation fighter platform by Lockheed Martin that will fuse the export-banned F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The hybrid platform is the US defense giant’s entry into Japan’s competition to build its own stealth fighter—the F-3. They are also developing a new Air-to-Surface supersonic missile.