6-20-24 *INTERVIEW* Rep Jim Banks (R-IN) on Politics & Threats (to His Family and the Country)

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The first time I met Jim Bankswas twenty years ago, and he and
I were both trying to help JeffCrank win the fifth Congressional District Republican nomination.
It was a hard fought primary thatDoug Lamborne ended up winning, and
Jim Banks is back in Colorado tohelp Jeff Crank again as I am as

(00:23):
well. And we're going to talkabout that race in a little bit.
But let me just further introduce Jeff. Jim is the representative for Colorado for
Indiana's third congressional district. I thinkI have that number right. He'll correct
me if I've got it wrong,and maybe the next Senator from Indiana.
I'm not going to say it anystronger than that because I don't want to
jinx anybody. Jim, welcome backto Koa. And is it the third

(00:46):
district or did I get the numberwrong? You got it exactly right.
Northeast Indiana. Fort Wayne is thebiggest city in my district and it's been
an honor to serve in the Houseof Representatives the last eight years and running
for the Senate. As you said, we feel good about it. We're
not taking anything for granted, butthis is when they say Ross, this

(01:06):
is the most important election of ourlifetime. I don't think it's a cliche
this time. Maybe it never is, but this really is the most important
election of our lifetime. And Iwant to be a part of the next
generation of leaders in the United StatesSenate who's going to save this country from
the radical socialist on the left.And I'm excited about that opportunity. But
I've got a little bit less thanfive months to go to seal the deal

(01:29):
in Indiana, and I should knowthe answer to this, but I don't.
Do you have a primary or wasn'tthere one, or did you win
it already or what's that story.Well, I'm very lucky I did not
have a Republican primary opponent. Ourprimary was a month ago, so I
got through that. I have aDemocrat in the fall. Not You know,

(01:51):
Indiana used to be a sort ofa state that could go back and
forth. We had Democrats back inthe day, like Evan you might remember
that name. Joe Donnelley held theseat that I'm running for six years ago.
But Ross, Indiana has become somuch more Republican in this current environment.
As working class, blue collar Republicanvoters become Republican they used to vote

(02:15):
Democrat. A lot of the unionfactory workers or the steel workers in our
state have figured out that the DemocratParty does not represent the common man,
the working class voter. The RepublicanParty does. So that's a big difference
around the country. But it strikesit has gone a long way in Indiana

(02:38):
to making our state even more Republicanthan it has ever been in my lifetime.
All Right, I'm gonna ask youabout a few things, and then
we're going to talk about Jeff Crankin Colorado's fifth congressional district. But I
was wondering if you have an opinionthat you want to share publicly and you
can decline on Virginia's fifth congressional district. The primary with with Bob Good,

(03:00):
which they still haven't decided yet becausethe primary was Tuesday night. It ended
up with these two guys. Theother guy, his name is John McGuire,
is a Navy seal for ten years, and he was endorsed by Donald
Trump. But the races they werejust separated by like three hundred votes out
of sixty two thousand votes cast.And because it's the government and yesterday was
a holiday. They didn't count anymoreyesterday, so we still don't know.

(03:23):
But anyway, I don't know ifyou've made any public comments on this race,
but do you have any thoughts?Yeah, I haven't been focused on
it. Bob good as the chairmanof the Freedom Caucus, but you know,
he's more of a He's more ofa bomb thrower instigator. You know,
I'm not. I can't think backover the last few years and think

(03:45):
of anything that productive that he's doneor accomplished. Is his opponent is like
me, a veteran and done goodthings for our country. I have friends
who are sort of on both sidesof this race, and I've been following
it, but I'm not I'm notinvolved with it. Ivan endorse either of
the candidates. I will say thisin it reminds me of I know,

(04:06):
we're gonna get around talking about theCrank versus Dave Williams race. We need
strong, principled conservatives go to Washingtonto fight to save this country and not
people who make politics all about themselves, who love the headlines and the viral
tweets and you know, being notfamous but infamous. And you know,

(04:30):
Bob to me Bob Good kind offits that caricature, so it reminds me
a lot of Dave Williams in alot of ways. I think we'll get
around talking about in a little bit, But at the end of the day,
I'm less focused on these the primaryin Virginia, more focused on helping
Jeff Crank and then doing what wehave to do to get a Republican majority
in the Senate, and then wehave to grow right now ross we have

(04:50):
a painful two seat majority in theHouse of Representatives, and then we got
to win back to the White Houseto save this country. And unlike in
twenty sixteen, which is when Ifirst got elected to Congress, we have
to be ready to go on Januarytwenty one, when the day after the
president gets inaugurated. We have towe have to have an agenda in place

(05:10):
to go out and do what wehave to do to save this country,
secure the border, address inflation,energy independence, making our military strong,
and forecasting American strength around the world. And we need serious conservatives who are
going to be focused on doing that, not the clown show that wants to
disrupt disrupt progress. And you know, Bob Good and Dave william sort of

(05:34):
fit that, right, heiah.Yeah, And we have another candidate in
Colorado and I won't mention her name, but might fit that description as well.
Certainly a lot of people think shedoes. But before we keep going
on politics, I got to askyou about this story that I just saw
on ABC News yesterday. Here's theheadline. US attorney declined to prosecute over

(05:55):
threat to congressman. Letter claims thisis about you, This is this is
about very threatening messages. Uh.I guess uh that that some guy.
And then the guy is named here. I won't even bother saying his name,
but like about naming your family andthe word bullets in the same sentence.

(06:15):
What's going on? Yeah, youknow, ros this is one of
those painful situations a lot of unfortunatelya lot of elected officials go through.
The reason that this is a storynow happened to happened a year ago.
A guy threatened in my district notfar from where I live, threatened to
kill my young daughters and my myfamily. Uh. The Department of Justice

(06:40):
under Biden declined to pursue charges againsthim. The Capitol police came to me
and said, this is one ofthe one of the one percent of threats
that falls into our category of credible, and and they they recommended that the
DJ press charges against this guy.Fortunately, my local prosecutor did press charges,

(07:02):
and he was prosecuted and pled guilty. And in Indiana, though the
the uh, the the consequences thathis his uh, the consequences are very
very minor to what they would havebeen if he would have been prosecuted in
the federal court. So the reasonthat this story came out again now,
uh, you know, several monthsafter he was prosecuted, is I just

(07:26):
saw yet another story about a deaththreat against Maxine Waters, a Democrat,
and the DJ pressing going after theuh the uh the person that made the
threat, and that person is goingto spend thirty three months in a federal
prison, as they should. Also, I've seen stories about the DJ going
after threats against Eric Swalwells. SoI sent a letter to the DJ and

(07:48):
said, ask the obvious question,what why are you pursuing death threats against
Democrat members of Congress? But youdidn't do anything at all to address threats
against me Republican credible death threats againstmy young daughters, my family, And
that that was kind of the thethe point of the recent news story.

(08:09):
To me, it appears that theDOJ really has become politicized, and I
think this is another example of whatthat looks like. Is troublesome to me.
Eric Holder has not. He didsend me, finally, after this
story broke a couple of days ago, a sort of canned response that they
take threats seriously, but they haveyet to explain why they declined to prosecute

(08:33):
a threat against the Republican congressman,this time being me. But they've been
They've jumped on a lot of threatsagainst Democrats. And is it Eric Ray
sent you a letter. Yeah,he he did, and it was very
unsatisfactory. I didn't say anything atall. Unbelievable. All Right, we're
talking with Congressman Jim Banks from Indiana, perhaps the next senator from from that

(08:58):
state. Also US Navy officer whowas deployed in Afghanistan during that war.
Are you still in the reserve,Jym. I recently got out. You
know, I did it for tenyears. Proud to serve my country.
I got elected to Congress. NowI serve my country in a new way.
I serve on the Armed Services Committeeat chair of the Military Personnel Subcommittee,

(09:18):
the biggest subcommittee on the Armed ServicesCommittee that addresses support for our troops
and their families. So very proudof my service. Was proud to go
to Afghanistan and serve my country.But now I serve my country in a
different way. Let's talk a littlebit about our mutual friend, Jeff Crank.
And when you and I first met, I don't think you even had

(09:39):
any inkling that you might run forCongress. We're talking about twenty years ago,
and you were here in Colorado andyou and I met and we were
both trying to help Jeff beat DougLambborne in the primary and Doug one and
there were some dirty tricks whatever,but that's water under the bridge. Now
you're back to help them again,and I'm trying to help them again.
And you know what, do youwhy does this importan to you? Well,

(10:03):
Jeff is a great friend, andyou know he's been a hunting buddy
over the years I was a partof. I was the campaign manager for
that race when he lost by eighthundred votes to Doug Lamborne eighteen years ago.
And time sure flies. So whenDoug Lamborne announced that he wasn't running
again after eighteen years in the House. And frankly, let me say this.
I served closely with Doug and hedoes a lot to support the military

(10:24):
in Colorado Springs and is a isa principal Conservative, and he's been a
gentleman to serve with. But whenJeff, when Jeff started thinking about getting
into the race, of course Iencourage him to run. I'm glad that
he and Lisa and his family decidedto give it another shot. I do
just think Jeff Crank is the typeof articulate principal Conservative who can explain what

(10:46):
our party stands for and what webelieve who we are. That's the tip.
He's the type of conservative that weneed right now in our party more
than ever. I think I meeta lot of these candidates around the country.
I'm biased because I've known Jeff forso long. He's a great friend,
a great friend of my family ata really great person. But he's
to me, he's the best candidaterunning new candidate in the country running for

(11:09):
Congress. But ross, I thinkhe's also running against the very worst candidate
running for Congress in the country too. And Dave Williams, I mean,
this guy is a total crook,taking money away from the Colorado Republican Party
that he's the chairman of and usingthat to fund his own personal campaign for
Congress. I don't know how thisguy avoids going to jail for that.

(11:31):
I know there are open FEC investigationsagainst him for it, and as there
should be. But this guy isstealing money from the Colorado Republican Party to
beat up on Jeff Crank, whois one of the best Republicans and Conservatives
that I know in the entire country. And I'm not just some congressman from
Indiana coming to help a guy inColorado. I used to live in Colorado

(11:52):
Springs. I love Colorado Springs.I work to focus on the family.
My wife works for an organization that'shad ordered in Colorado Springs. We love
this state and this community. Andthis is also the most important military district
in the country. Fort Carson,the Air Force Academy, the defense industry

(12:13):
in this part of Colorado and thecountry is really important to the rest of
the nation. And let me tellyou, there's a big difference between Dave
Williams, who has no interest inour national defense, who has no interest
in those issues, and Jeff Crank, who would be very focused on those
types of issues, to not justsupport Colorado and Colorado Springs, but to

(12:35):
keep the United States of America safeand secure. That's why it's easy for
me to come here and give upfour days to come and campaign for Jeff
Crank, because he's not just goodfor you, he's good for the country.
I'm grateful to you for doing that. Obviously, members of Congress are
busy, and especially members of Congresswho are running for the Senate are busy.
So I'm really appreciative of that,and I agree with everything you said.
Dave Williams isn't interested in benefiting anythingother than Dave Williams any He doesn't

(13:00):
care what he has to do todo that. He is truly one of
the most unethical people I have everhad the misfortune to. I don't really
know him, I met him acouple of times, but just he's he's
terrible. I mean, calling hima grifter is almost unfair to grifters.
That's that's so true. I mean. Also, I've watched the debates,

(13:24):
I've followed the campaign. The differenceis between Jeff Crank and Dave Williams are
just their night and day. Imean, you know, you look at
where they stand on important issues.I mean the the the background, Dave
Dave Williams and his Chinese businesses,and Jeff Crank is focused on bringing jobs

(13:45):
back to America and holding our biggestenemy accountable for what they've done to disrupt
America through stealing our intellectual property andstealing our jobs or giving us COVID,
and Dave Williams is very pro China. So those have the differences are very
important. Also in the debate,there were questions of Dave Williams about what
are you gonna do to support thedefense industry in Colorado And he's come out

(14:09):
and said that's just not an interestof his and that's so important, and
Jeff Crank is very focused on that. So the differences our night and day.
It's easy for me to come andhelp a friend. But I'm telling
you that Dave Dave Williams, ifsomehow he got elected to Congress, I
think ross after being at Colorado Springsthe last few days, there's not a
single Dave Williams yard sign in thisentire district. I think this district has

(14:31):
figured out that this guy would bereally bad for Colorado Springs. I think
and I hope it's going to bea landslide win for Jeff Crank. But
if Dave Williams did somehow get elected, he will never be taken seriously in
Washington, DC because everyone knows whathe's, who he is, and how
he grifted off the Colorado Republican Party. That's going to be an embarrassment for

(14:52):
your state if somehow he got elected. And Mike Rodgers, the chairman of
the Armed Services Committee who's endorsed JeffFrank, says Jeff Crank would be a
great member of the Armed Services Committee. I don't think he will let Dave
Williams anywhere near that committee because hewould be dangerous and disruptive and not support
the most important issues of our time. I agree with you completely, you

(15:15):
know, full thrown in support fromboth of us for Jeff Crank. Jeff,
It's not just that Dave Williams isterrible. Even he is, Jeff
Crank is also the right guy forthe job. We're not just saying,
get you know, vote for Jeffbecause Dave Dave Williams is bad. Jeff
is the right guy for this job, has been for a long time,
So I'm I'm enthusiastically about supporting soall right, in our last couple of

(15:39):
minutes together, Jim, I wantto ask you about something completely different.
And this is a let's see whohas this? Who has this news story?
The Indianapolis Star has this news storyand the headline is US Congressman Jim
Banks wants answers from the w nb A for Kennedy. I don't know
how you pronounce it, first namedCarter foull on Caitlyn Clark. So what's

(16:03):
this about? And what are youdoing as a congressman like sticking your nose
into sports? Yeah, it's agood question. Caitlin Clark is already a
who's your legend? That you know, she's drawing sold out crowds in Indianapolis
and everywhere else that she plays.And she also doesn't fit the stereotype of
your typical w NBA players. Sothe w n b A is a very

(16:27):
woke league. They take left wingstances on politics all the time, and
I and and and then you seehow they treated Caitlyn Clark, that the
abuse that she's taken on. Ofcourse, she's a tough player. She'll
she'll take the heart fouls and andshe'll play her heart out on the basketball
court. But my letter is reallyabout a bigger issue of what is the

(16:49):
w NBA projecting the young girls likemy daughters who are basketball players, about
what they stand for when they takepolitical stances on the on the radical left,
but they don't protect a woman whois playing. That doesn't fit the
political stereotypes of what the WNBA isall about. And that was what my

(17:11):
letter was all about me. It'ssort of it's a big story in Indiana,
but around the country, and thesewoke players in a woke league,
I think they deserve the scrutiny andsome of the some of the accountability that
a lot of us are calling for. All Right, one last political question,
This actually coming from a few differentlisteners with this version of the same

(17:32):
question. If Donald Trump wins theWhite House and Republicans have full control of
Congress, will principled Republicans get backto controlling the federal deficit? Even though
Donald Trump has never seemed to careabout the federal deficit, Yeah, I
actually think he does care about it. I've spoken by President Trump many times
about the national debt. He understandsthat as a threat to our national security,

(17:56):
to our national sovereignty. Today rossyou know this, we pay more
on the interest of our debt thanthe entire budget of the Pentagon just to
pay for our military and support ourtroops. So we have to do something
about it. And I believe morethan ever before, Republicans are aware of
the threat and the importance. Ichaired the Republican Study Committee. We always

(18:18):
put out a balanced budget proposal,and there are easy ways to address spending
and the debt that we can positionsthat we can take immediately with Trump in
the White House and a Republican Senatein a Republican House to begin to address
that important issue that has been ignoredfor so long. But I also agree
it's a biparties and blame Republicans questionof blame for spending and growing a thirty

(18:42):
plus trillion dollar or national debt thatwe have today. But we don't have
a choice but to do something aboutit. And I think it's going to
take a Trump in the White House, Republican Senate, Republican House to address
it. All right, just veryquick follow up on this and then we
got to go so in this fromme rather than a listener. More specific
beyond how much or how little Trumpcares about the debt, he specifically has

(19:03):
campaigned on, not on, notreforming entitlements, and of course that's where
the money is. So do youthink that Republican members of Congress will will
be willing to start pushing for theabsolutely necessary entitlement reform knowing that Donald Trump
is at least, let's say alittle skeptical about it. Yeah, I

(19:29):
think so. We You know this, I've been a part of those conversations
with President Trump to you, wecan make very simple reforms to Social Security,
Medicare, and Medicaid without affecting anyonewho relies on on uh, on
those programs today, and and thatthat's what we have to sell to President
Trump and sell to the nation.You can, you can make reforms to
Social Security and Medicare without affecting anysenior citizen center anyone who's going to rely

(19:55):
on those programs there tomorrow. Andthe alternative, the alternative, which is
what the Democrats support, which isdoing nothing, means bankrupting those programs and
costing seniors even more so, it'simportant that Republicans go out and talk about
the Democrat plan to ignore the elephantin the room means automatic cuts to Social
Security that Democrats will be responsible forif we head down that path. Republicans

(20:18):
are the ones who had the answers. Republicans Study Committee, Conservatives in Congress.
We know that you can reform theseprograms without affecting anybody who relies on
them. And that's what I thinkPresident Trump can get on board with too.
Jim Banks represents northeastern Indiana. He'sa Republican, represents them in the
House of Representatives, may soon bethe next Senator from Indiana. I sure

(20:41):
hope so, Jim. Thanks forspending time today. Appreciate all your work.
I appreciate your travel to Colorado,and I appreciate your friendship. We'll
see against Sara. Thank you.Ross all right,