EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Sessions Talks Trump-Reagan Comparison, Russian Subs Off Florida Coast

Texas Politics spoke to Representative Pete Sessions (R-TX) following the closed-door meeting between former President Donald Trump (R) and Republicans from the House and the Senate, where he offered insight surrounding what Trump communicated inside the meeting.

According to the Texas congressman, the former president often made comparisons to Reagan with himself, something that Sessions agreed with and provided evidence for.

“When President Obama left office, he said the one thing that he never solved and would not be solved anytime soon, was the North Korean missile crisis, which Donald Trump solved within six weeks,” said Rep. Sessions. “President Trump compared himself to Reagan yesterday, four or five times. Well, now let's understand this: He understands deterrence and deterrence is that you have something to fight with and you're going to deter something. He also understands that Ronald Reagan would take activity that would be necessary to underpin and support that foreign policy, and he has indicated he would. He drew the line and would draw the line across the board including the attack against Israel, including the things that happened with Russia, and he indicated that he would not have tolerated any of those and they did not happen under his watch.”

Furthermore, Sessions continued his answer by enlisting an example of President Reagan’s “peace through strength” initiatives. He believes Trump follows a similar game plan.

“You'll recall we were in a similar or type circumstance, way different, far more dangerous in Iran in 1978 and ‘79. And Ronald Reagan said, if they are still holding our hostages when they become president, they'll wish they'd never taken them. And literally, the night before he's sworn in, the Iranians let them out. 444 [hostages]. There are models of success, and Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump follow these models of success,” said Sessions.

Sessions also mentioned that President Trump would not have allowed the Russian naval units to be miles off Florida’s coast.

“Well, it has been the United States’ policies for many, many years that this hemisphere, we would in fact, not just become engaged in, but would protect. And we viewed that it was homeland security, but also hemisphere issue,” said the Texas congressman. “The last time this became this big of an issue was the Cuban Missile Crisis and is when the Russians undetected, until they arrived, had missiles that were ready to go in Cuba. President Trump has indicated that he will not allow it. It's completely unacceptable that we have gotten to this part and then he drew that line and extended it further, which the American people believe and understand.”

Sessions represents Texas’ 17^th Congressional District.