MANCHESTER – U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan joined WGIR’s New Hampshire Today with Chris Ryan to discuss President Trump’s lack of plan to end the Iran war, the need for experienced, qualified national security leadership, and her bipartisan work to make housing more affordable.
In case you missed it, listen to Senator Hassan’s interview here and see below for some key moments:
Senator Hassan on how President Trump can end his illegal war in Iran: “What has become increasingly clear is that [President Trump] does not have a strategy for winning this war or ending this war ... At the end of the day, this war has cost us the lives of service men and women. It has cost us our credibility internationally, and it has obviously, as you just mentioned, cost us at the gas pump here at home. He needs to end the war.
“To do that … he needs to deploy people with the kind of diplomatic experience and scientific knowledge, particularly about nuclear weapons and Iran's nuclear program, and really nail down an agreement. Iran must never get a nuclear weapon, and we need to negotiate to that end, but we also need to end this war.”
Senator Hassan on the Trump Administration's lack of a strategy for Iran: “... you really need to have a Commander-in-Chief who is laying out a strategy, who understands all of the various pieces of a puzzle before he takes us to war. And we need a Secretary of Defense who will have the skill and expertise to deploy our assets effectively and advise the President before he goes to war.
“Clearly, in both Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth, we don't have strategic thinkers who will come to Congress and present a strategy and build support for it. And that's, at the end of the day, what has gotten us to this point and given Iran this extraordinary leverage with the Strait of Hormuz.”
Senator Hassan on the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act she helped pass: "We did pass a bipartisan bill called ROAD to Housing. Even though the President refused to sign it because he wanted to hold it hostage for something else, it ultimately became law ... That, in the long term, is going to be helpful in increasing supply, lowering costs, making that dream of owning your own home and that critical savings vehicle, as you point out, much more available. But it will take time. And in the meantime, we're working on other things—tax measures, for instance, that can help make that first purchase more affordable. There's more work to do, but…everyday citizens around the country have just made clear how difficult this is.
“And young people, I don't want them to give up hope. Owning your own home, building your own future in that home, raising a family are really important parts of what it means to be American, and we've got to get back to that.”
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