Heidi Alexander: “I am here with Senator Corker today to address the Senate and encourage this body to vote in support of Bill Hagerty as…”

“I am here with Senator Corker today to address the Senate and encourage this body to vote in support of Bill Hagerty as our Ambassador to Japan. In 2013, when Bill Hagerty was the commissioner of economic and community development for Tennessee, he gave a speech entirely in Japanese at the American Embassy in Tokyo. I have looked it up. There have been 16 U.S. Ambassadors to Tokyo, a very distinguished group since World War II: a five-star general, two former Senate majority leaders, a former Vice President of the United States, a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the daughter of a former President of the United States. So far as I know, none of them were able to do what Bill Hagerty did in 2013 when he made a speech entirely in Japanese at the American Embassy in Tokyo. That is just one reason I think Bill Hagerty is one of President Trump's best appointees. He was born in Tennessee, graduated from Vanderbilt University, was associate editor of the law review, worked as a consultant for the Boston Consulting Group. During his final 3 years, he lived in Tokyo, and he served as senior managing executive for their clients around Asia. He was selected by President George H.W. Bush to be on his staff, and there he worked on trade, commerce, defense and telecommunications issues. He was a White House fellow. He was founder and chairman of a company in private life that became the third largest medical research company in the United States.…”