CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – During a speech in Clarksville on Tuesday, Sen. Bill Hagerty presented a litany of concerns about the direction of the country, connecting the border crisis, America’s friction with China and Russia, the fentanyl epidemic, the debt ceiling debate and the lack of clear direction in Ukraine to the weakness projected by the Biden administration.
Speaking at a Clarksville Kiwanis meeting and following an introduction by Jack Turner, Hagerty, R-Tennessee, talked of his connections to Clarksville then led into a discussion of the southern border, which he’s visited with Montgomery County Sheriff John Fuson and called “a humanitarian crisis beyond description.”
He said more than 6 million people in the past two years have “flooded across” the southern border.
“This is a travesty of epic proportions. We have no sovereignty as a nation—that was demonstrated in just the past couple of weeks with the giant Chinese spy balloon that invaded our airspace, too. I guess the Chinese figured they could get away with it. We don’t guard our land borders, why would we care about our air borders?” Hagerty said.
He said the issue is that America is “no longer projecting strength” economically, politically or militarily, and that is opening the door for Russia and China to test us.
“We’re being tested at every turn,” he said, and for China, that’s coming through fentanyl.
Border problems and fentanyl
Hagerty and other members of Congress have recently been pushing the Biden administration to pressure China to curb the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
In 2019, the Chinese government cracked down on the manufacture and distribution of fentanyl, in a move that was hailed by the Trump administration. As a result, China is no longer the primary source of fentanyl getting into the US, according to a CNN report. But it’s still the key source of chemicals used to create fentanyl, which are being shipped to Mexico and then used by cartels to produce the drug, which is brought over the border.
“What they’re doing is waging war on our country through fentanyl,” and they’re doing it in partnership with the Mexican drug cartels.
He said immigrants who are encouraged by Biden’s weak immigration stance to pursue a new life in America are pouring past borders in Central America and are being used by cartels and “coyotes,” or immigrant smugglers, to bring fentanyl into the United States. Hagerty said Democrats are encouraging immigration in hopes of building up populations in Democrat-leaning cities, bolstering their own political power.
“At some point they’ve got to stop looking the other way,” Hagerty said.
Chip manufacturing victory
At the end of Hagerty’s complaints about the direction of the country, an audience member shifted the sour mood by asking, “Do you have any good news?” bringing laughter from the crowd.
Hagerty responded by discussing a recent initiative he worked on to address the computer semiconductor shortage.
“I started calling up the CEOs of the chip manufacturing firms and asked them, ‘Why aren’t you making these chips here in America?'” They had a variety of reasons, but all of them said it takes five to seven years to permit a chip factory in America. The issue is that these are massive facilities that use a lot of water, electricity and chemicals, and that requires extensive environmental permitting. Those were being done in a consecutive series, one following the other,” he said.
Hagerty looked into which permit took the longest, and that was only about 18 months. “So, why not force them to process them all parallel?” he said.
The Biden administration’s concern was that one permit might be denied, causing wasted effort. “My Democrat colleagues joined me in saying, ‘We don’t care. This is about our national security.'”
Hagerty said he worked with Democrats in the House and Senate and in the Biden administration to get the change pushed through and signed by the president. He cited that as an example of what can be done if more businessmen can get elected to office and “get back to the basics” to build a strong economy.
Good things happening in Clarksville
After the speech, Hagerty told Clarksville Now he is optimistic about what he sees in Clarksville and Montgomery County.
“There are many challenges facing us overseas and here in America that are quite troubling when you turn on the TV. But when you look around this community, there are so many great things going on. You’ve got a wonderful resource in Fort Campbell; you’ve got leadership in the community here that I think understands the importance of a good job and creating the environment for a positive economic environment.
“What’s happening here in America is a little bit different from what’s happening right here in Clarksville, Tennessee,” Hagerty said. “Frankly, I would never step away from the fact that America remains the most exceptional nation in the world, but we’ve got our challenges on a national basis that Clarksville is rising above and beyond to show its strength.”
Lee Erwin contributed to this report.