Nashville Standard

United States Senator Bill Hagerty recently appeared on The Story With Martha MacCallum on Fox News to express his concerns over what he described as Senate Democrats' deliberate delays in confirming President Donald Trump's cabinet appointments. Hagerty, who serves on several key Senate committees and is a former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, shared his thoughts during the broadcast.

Addressing the issue of confirmation delays, Hagerty stated, "We’re moving ahead in due course here. I think the biggest difficulty has been the Democrats that are using every procedural move they can, Martha, to try to slow this thing down." He outlined the schedule for upcoming votes on nominees Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, Scott Bessent, and Sean Duffy, emphasizing the procedural hurdles being employed by Democrats.

Hagerty also voiced strong support for nominee Pete Hegseth: “Certainly, our members [of the Senate] are all entitled to vote as they’re going to. I’m certainly going to be supportive of Pete because I think if you watch the four-and-a-half-hour confirmation hearing, you’re going to see that Pete is very bright, very energetic, and very talented."

The senator compared the current situation with past administrations' confirmation processes: "And I’ll just remind you, Martha, we are far, far behind where we were in [former President Barack] Obama’s initial Administration. We’re behind where we were, frankly, with President Trump, his first term..."

Hagerty concluded by encouraging his colleagues in the Senate to consider Hegseth's qualifications seriously and cast their votes accordingly.