U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference in Nashville on July 26, 2024, at which former President Donald Trump also spoke. (Photo: John Partipilo)
What in the world has happened to Bill Hagerty?
Tennessee’s junior senator has a distinguished background, going back to his days as an Eagle Scout. He earned both a bachelor’s degree and a law degree from Vanderbilt University, served as a White House fellow in the administration of President George W. Bush and earned bipartisan respect for his tenure as commissioner of Tennessee’s Department of Economic and Community Development under Gov. Bill Haslam.
His politics were conservative, but he appeared to be a business-minded, Chamber of Commerce-type Republican: he was a national finance chair for Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign and a delegate for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in 2016, before Bush dropped out of the Tennessee presidential primary.
Then, Hagerty entered former President Donald Trump’s orbit, and now he’s on a national news network repeating baseless and racist claims amplified by Trump that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio are killing and eating family pets.
On Sept. 10, the day after the presidential debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, Hagerty joined CNN’s Kaitlan Collins to unpack the event.
During one exchange, Collins questioned Hagerty about whether Trump had a responsibility to question alleged policy flip-flops by Harris.
“He certainly attempted to do that last night but he was doing that in the face of moderators who were fact-checking him right, left and center, and never fact-checking her,” said Hagerty.
Collins raised the absurd allegation about Haitian migrants that Trump aired during the debate, making for one of the stranger moments in the history of presidential debates: Might it have been worth the moderators fact-checking Trump given the clearly ludicrous claims? She asked Hagerty directly about the wisdom of Trump wading into the ridiculous fray since Springfield leaders have repeatedly said no domestic animals are being taken and eaten.
“Well, you’re talking about evidence. I’ve heard conflicting reports. There’s conflicting evidence. There’s a lot of information on the internet that this is happening,” said Hagerty.
Once upon a time at Vanderbilt: a young Bill Hagerty in his 1981 Vanderbilt yearbook.
Hagerty didn’t make Phi Beta Kappa — America’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society — at Vandy by being the sort of guy who believes any sort of random nonsense on the internet, nor did he make it through Vandy Law without being able to sort through “conflicting evidence.”
But he also didn’t become so successful in business without the savvy analytical skills to know where his bread is buttered, and Trump has been buttering Hagerty’s bread for years.
Hagerty’s hits
That Hagerty has been a Trump devotee isn’t new. He served as Ambassador to Japan in Trump’s administration before resigning to run for Senate. His yard signs for his 2020 campaign said simply: “Hagerty. U.S. Senate. Endorsed by Trump.”
Even before he was sworn into office, Hagerty questioned the results of the 2020 election, posting a statement on his campaign website that “The lack of transparency and irregularities that we’ve seen are a cause of great concern.”
Never mind that at the time of Hagerty’s statement, Trump-appointed judges had already denied Trump’s accusations of a stolen election.
On Jan. 2, 2021, Hagerty announced in a joint press release with senior Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn the pair would vote against certifying the election results. And as it turned out, both were on the call list for Trump consigliere Rudy Giuliani on Jan. 6, 2021, the day of the lawless riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Following the insurrection attempt, both senators flipped and voted to certify the election, with no explanation for the change — but no matter, the tone was set for our Hagerty expectations.
Since taking office, Hagerty has voted against health care for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during Middle East deployments. After the 2022 raid of Trump’s Florida home that turned up a cache of classified documents, Hagerty opined that former President Bill Clinton — impeached for lying under oath in a sexual harassment investigation — received preferential treatment compared to that Trump got.
In August, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported Hagerty defended comments by Trump denigrating recipients of the Medal of Honor, the highest military honor awarded in the U.S.
Even after four years of watching Hagerty debase himself at Trump’s feet, several of his Vanderbilt classmates scratch their heads as they tell me they don’t understand the version of Hagerty they see on TV.
If one believes Tennessee’s political chattering class, Hagerty is holding out for an appointment as secretary of state under a second Trump administration, which could explain his rock-solid backing of Trump.
If true, it’s clear ambition and the weird lure of Trump got to Hagerty as they have for so many others, including those who once worked against Trump like GOP vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance — purveyor of the accusations that Haitian immigrants were eating pets. In 2016, Vance compared Trump to Adolf Hitler.
It remains to be seen if Hagerty will evolve his image again in the event of a Trump loss. In the meantime, the answer to the question of what got into him seems simple: the power of Trump can turn a reasonable, conservative Tennessee businessman into a toady repeating patently wild and spurious claims.
Bill Hagerty, we hardly knew ye.
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