Rep Jim Banks: President Trump Is The Toughest Man I’ve Ever Met In My Life
Tony Katz:
Congressman Jim Banks joins me right now. He is in Milwaukee, not only attending the RNC, but he is also speaking. At the RNC, one of the premier speakers at the event. Before we get into your words at the convention, talk to me about the assassination attempt. Where were you and how were you notified that this had taken place?
Jim Banks:
Well, Tony, my staff reached out to me to let me know that it happened, and I was at home in Columbia City. I was getting ready to go to dinner with my wife and was very shook up by it. I at that point when it had just happened, we didn’t know if the president was seriously hurt or worse. I’ve always feared something like this. I have been to a lot of these rallies with President Trump, a lot of high charged political events over the four years that he was president. I have been with the President Trump a lot over the four years that he’s been out of office and… This is our worst fear… President Trump and his reaction afterwards just goes to show that this is the toughest man I’ve ever met in my life.
Source: The Washington Post / Getty
He was a great president for four years. I believe he’s going to be an even better president the next four years. When he’s back in the White House. And I can’t wait to be with him this week on that stage. This is history at this this Republican convention in Milwaukee, and I’m so proud to be here to stand with him. And I sense, Tony, I believe Donald Trump is going to win the election by a wide margin before the assassination attempt. I can’t imagine if this day he doesn’t win this by historic proportions in November and his speech, is already being reported, he’s rewritten it. It will be a speech about his love of our country, unifying our country, moving our country forward again, making America great once again and. I think it’s gonna be a powerful speech on Thursday. I can’t wait for it.
Source: Benjamin Lowy / Getty
Tony Katz:
How do you feel about the rewrite? Look, if anybody knows anything about you, you have never ever wavered in your support of President Trump. You are absolutely willing to take the slings and arrows and respond with focus, although I’ve never seen you respond, actually, with malice. I’ve never seen that happen. You are undaunted in your respect, you’re undaunted in your support, certainly publicly, but that support also involves the fight. You, you are a believer in fighting for the nation and fighting for these values that that you discuss. This reporting from Salena Zito that the speech has been rewritten in the wake of the assassination attempt. Do you feel that a softer touch is necessary or needed? Or do you have a comment to what you would like to see President Trump address on Thursday?
Jim Banks:
Well, President Trump always rises to the moment, and this is an opportunity, historic opportunity to rise to the moment. He did that on Saturday. I mean that. That photo of him raising his fist, undaunted by what had just happened to him. To stand on his feet and raise his fists, that that photo will be in history books 100 years from now.
Source: Michael M. Santiago / Getty
I’ve always thought this president was a lot like Teddy Roosevelt in many ways. But on Saturday, that came true in in a, I suppose, a tragic yet historic way.
Source: HUM Images / Getty
But on Thursday, he has a chance to rise to the moment once again. It doesn’t mean, softening his tone, it doesn’t mean leaving out important points that he would have said otherwise. It means rising to the moment. And I know President Trump is going to do that. I mean, he’s one of the one of the best public speakers of my lifetime. I remember when he would give the state of the, he always rose to the moment when he gave those State of the Union speeches, they were always so good.
Source: The Washington Post / Getty
And I think what you’re going to get a taste of on Thursday of what that’s like again, and then you contrast that with what we have in the White House currently. You’ll see leadership on the stage on Thursday.
Tony Katz:
You’ve seen weakness emanating from the White House for four, the last four years with Joe Biden. The contrast will be, I think, as significant as you’ve ever seen it. And I know President Trump will rise to the moment. Talking to Congressman Jim Banks of the Indiana Third District, the Republican candidate for Senate in the state of Indiana at the RNC in Milwaukee, where he will be speaking in in prime time. The President Joe Biden spoke in prime-time last night from the Oval Office… Did you hear the address and what was your take?
Source: SOPA Images / Getty
Jim Banks:
Yeah, I’ve watched bits and pieces of it. I just think, Tony, it doesn’t matter what Joe Biden says at this point. The American people have already lost trust in him. They’ve tuned him out and that’s the dangerous place that we find ourselves in. He’s still in the White House for another six months. He’s still the commander-in-chief, but America has tuned him out and lost faith in him to be the leader that we need. What I saw in the speech last night was not was not inspiring. I appreciate his motives and what he seeks to do in unifying the country. But I think he’s done so much of the opposite over the last four years that America has given up on him. That’s why Joe Biden has the lowest approval rating of any president in American history since we’ve measured approval ratings. And that’s why Donald Trump is surging in leads and all of the swing States and destined to become the president of the United States again.
Tony Katz:
You are speaking at the RNC. You’ve been asked to do so. It is as Joe Biden would say, a big blinking deal to get that invite, to get that opportunity to speak. Talk to me about what your comments are going to be. What is it that you are trying to tell the party and the nation?
Jim Banks:
Yeah, we’re remember a year and a half ago when I got into the race to run to be Indiana’s next United States senator. Donald Trump had my back from day one. He endorsed me immediately. He was my first phone call when I got when I kicked off my campaign. And in mid-January of 2023, he told me he would endorse me from the outset. I was his first endorsement of this election cycle. He helped me clear the field in Indiana for the Republican primary and now we’re marching toward November with a strong shot and pathway to be Indiana’s next senator. So, I’m being invited as an ally of President Trump to speak on that stage tomorrow night because of that incredible opportunity that Indiana has given me, and the alliance with President Trump. I’m gonna talk Tony about what’s at stake. I’m a small-town kid from Columbia City, IN. I grew up as the son of a factory worker and a nursing home cook. Never in my parents’ wildest dreams, would their son, who was born in a trailer park, grow up to be a United States senator. And that’s what I want to focus on, that this country is the greatest country in the history of the world. And what’s at stake for our kids and our grandkids, and what Donald Trump is going to do to get America back on its feet as I truly believe the agenda of the left is to destroy that American dream and take away those opportunities for our kids and our grandkids. So, I’m going to talk about that. What’s at stake? A reminder that America is great. America is worth fighting for. This is the greatest country in the history of the world. I think that’s going to be a theme that you’re going to hear all throughout the week from me and a lot of other speakers as well.
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