Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Transcript: Interview with Jim Banks
Interview
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Joining me now is Jim banks, Indiana congressman; and Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House and Fox News contributor. Congressman Banks, 19 senators basically signed on with the left to go right into the reconciliation bill. We knew this was going to happen. Senator Cassidy tried to debate me on this. And sorry, he ended up looking like a fool. Your response?
REP. JIM BANKS (R-IN): Well, this is just insane, Laura. We're trying to win back majorities in the House in the Senate. How do you do that when Republicans act like Democrats? How do we convince the American people to vote, to give Republicans the trust once again to lead when they see stuff like this happen today? We know that inflation is on the rise, the price of everyday goods costs more, and real wages are declining in America. It's only going to get worse because of this deal. It's a travesty that Republicans would go along with it.
Also, Laura, you have to recognize that the same Republican senators that went along with this infrastructure deal that only 9 percent of it is actually infrastructure, the same Republican senators that denied Donald Trump an infrastructure deal that cost half of this that all of it went to infrastructure. They wouldn't let him accomplish that under Donald Trump's watch. Why did they go along with Democrats and give Joe Biden a win on Biden's watch? I just don't get it.
INGRAHAM: Now, Newt, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, she reacted to the passage of this bill, and it was instructive. Watch.
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REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): With all the respect in the world for this Senate Bill, I'm glad it passed. I'm glad it's bipartisan. But it is not the totality of the vision of Joe Biden and the congressional Democrats. If we could have to do this much bipartisan, ok, but that is not the vision. The vision is to build back better.
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INGRAHAM: I love the hand emotions, Newt. They are rubbing Republicans' faces in this after Republicans were trying to assure our viewers and conservatives across the country that it would make it less likely that the $3.5 trillion would ultimately pass in some form. Your reaction?
NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: Well, I know it's very hard to understand. I agree with Jim. I can't understand why a single Republican senator would have voted for this. It didn't meet any of the standards they promised. It isn't paid for. It isn't restricted just to infrastructure. It does have tax increases in it. It has all sorts of left-wing proposals and projects and ideas. It massively pays off Schumer in New York City with what I think is a enormously expensive tunnel that probably is larger than about half the states' share of the infrastructure part of this. And it has no really serious reforms in it.
I can't imagine how these Republicans can go home and with a straight face suggest that they voted for something that's truly bipartisan. And, of course, it's all going to get worse in the House, because Pelosi is running a dictatorship, and she has absolute control of her narrow margin. But it's a sufficient margin. So who knows what's going to come back?
And I think, for the standpoint of any conservative voter in America, this is a disaster. It's an unnecessary disaster. And it's a self-inflicted wound by the Senate Republicans.
INGRAHAM: Yes. Congressman, Bernie Sanders is calling the next monstrosity, which is the follow on reconciliation bill, the most consequential bill since the New Deal. So to remind everyone, universal preschool; two years of free community college; adding dental, vision and hearing benefits to Medicare; cutting carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2030; and an immigration overhaul, that ends up being amnesty. It's just the tip of the iceberg. An enormous amount on the new climate core and climate change giveaways.
Congressman, could the House possibly stop this?
BANKS: I hope so. We've been called back the week after next, Laura. The House will come back into session. We will do everything we can to stop this. What the American people need to know is that Joe Biden is a socialist president. He's governing as a socialist. He's adopted the Bernie Sanders playbook. And this is a big example of that.
But also on top of that, this will grant the widest reaching amnesty that this country has ever seen to 12 - somewhere between 12 and 20 million illegals, including 1.5 migrants who have come into this country illegally since Joe Biden has been president. This bill will do that too. So it's dangerous on many levels. We'll do everything we can to fight against it and stop it.
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