ICYMI—Hagerty Joins The Exchange on CNBC to Discuss Crypto Expansion in the U.S.

WASHINGTON-United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Banking and Foreign Relations Committees and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, yesterday joined The Exchange on CNBC to discuss his support for cryptocurrency expansion in the U.S., in contrast to the Biden Administration trying to block crypto innovation by attempting to jam through radical, anti-crypto nominees to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) during its final weeks in office.

Partial Transcript

Hagerty on the Biden Administration attacking crypto: "As President [Donald] Trump said, we want to be at the cutting edge of innovation here. If you look at the Biden Administration, at this SEC, you look at the regulatory onslaught that they've had to deal with-the fact that they're using the lack of legal framework to just come in and regulate this industry by litigation. What we're going to look for is a great opportunity for crypto to expand here, again, putting the United States at the cutting edge of the innovation. And I think we're going to attract a lot of brain power here, and a lot of opportunity, as a result of it."

Hagerty on his evolution to becoming pro-crypto: "It's taken some time, and my viewpoint has evolved. As you remember, Kelly, I was the U.S. Ambassador to Japan. I saw a massive heist take place there with Coincheck. I was deeply concerned about where that cryptocurrency might have landed. But as I dug into the technology and saw the potential of the blockchain, where this could go, it's absolutely amazing. And then if I think about just basic principles of a decentralized currency like this, the freedom and liberty that it supports, there's a lot of very positive aspects to this, and I think America should be at the forefront of it."

Hagerty on the importance of the steel industry in the U.S.: "This is not about our strategic alliance for the Japan and the United States; this has to do with a critical strategic industry here in America that is steel. President Trump has acknowledged that; he worked on it in his previous Administration. Steel is an absolutely vital, strategic industry for us, and it warrants a very careful look…What we want to see is a robust steel industry happen here in America. President Trump has been clear about that, and I'm not surprised at all that he wants to do everything he can to incentivize the growth of U.S. industry."

Hagerty on the need to focus on capital markets for innovation in America: "If we look at our capital markets as the source of competitive advantage that they truly are, if we get out of the business of trying to use climate activism, DEI, and things like that as a tool to guide our capital markets, and instead get back to the animal instincts of America and capitalism. And I think we're going to get that with our incoming SEC Chairman, Paul Atkins, and the team there. What we can do is make the capital available for precisely the type of innovation that you're talking about. So, I'm excited about the potential. I think everything is going to change on the 20th of January in a very, very positive way, in terms of making the type of capital available, the amounts of capital available, that we need, to see more and more innovation happen right here in America."

Hagerty on why Caroline Crenshaw is unqualified to be nominated to the SEC: "What we see here is the Biden Administration, and [Senator] Sherrod Brown in the Banking Committee, in the 11th hour, the lame-duck session, after the American people have already spoken loud and clear on November the 5th. They want to see change-they want to see positive change-and they came and tried to slam in through a procedural mechanism that's very sleight of hand, a backroom deal that would've jammed in one of the worst potential candidates for SEC Commissioner that I could have imagined. Caroline Crenshaw, she is a climate activist. She pushed to go even further than Scope Three, in terms of the disclosure requirements, that she wanted to impose on U.S. companies, again, making our capital markets less competitive than ever. The diversity requirements that she wanted to impose on corporate boards, she led that charge. The courts spoke loud and clear this week and kicked it out. The American public and our capital markets don't need this type of oversight at all."

Hagerty on refusing to let Senate Banking Committee Democrats jam through radical SEC nominees: "[Democrats] can expect a strong fight from people like me because this is exactly what we do not need right now. And again, the American people have spoken on the 5th of November, and what the Biden Administration is trying to do, and what Sherrod Brown and the Democrats and the Banking Committee attempted, but failed at, was to come back and jam in the type of person that the American public doesn't want to see in these offices."

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