Rep. Jim Banks (R-Okla.) takes the oath of office in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 3, 2019.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Rep. Jim Banks (R-CA), chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), recently said he intends to continue to flesh out Trump‘s agenda in Congress and, in doing so, help push the Republican Party in the right direction. And one of the main issues is that of opposing the Chinese Communist Party.
In a phone interview last Friday (Feb. 19), Banks said, “The results of the last election put us in a unique situation where we find ourselves in a minority in the House and a minority in the Senate, and the White House is already held by the Democrats. Some are calling it the ‘post-Trump era,’ and I’m trying to take the Republican Study Committee and build it into a new pool of conservative agendas.”
Banks: Learn Trump’s strategy “against the Chinese Communist Party” is the theme of the RSC
Banks further explained that the RSC is the largest conservative caucus on Capitol Hill, with 150 people, accounting for more than three-quarters of the Republican Conference, and is the “pulse” of the Republican Party on Capitol Hill. Republicans can use this to unite on the conservative agenda and focus on solving problems.
He also noted that the traditional conservative position of the Republican Party is changing, and that the Republican Party must now recognize and adapt to what it has learned in the Trump era while adhering to its traditional Reagan-era platform. It would be foolish for Republicans to reject everything Trump has done, including what has been done to the working class.
Banks is trying to bring Trump’s ideas and victories to the entire party and use the RSC as the engine to move that agenda forward. He believes Trump has taught Republicans how to appeal to working-class voters. Banks said, “I think his focused approach is to hold the CPC particularly financially responsible for bad trade competition.”
He went on to say that the RSC’s focus, and supposedly the Republican Party’s, is on opposing communist China, and that the Biden administration is seeking to become “friendly” to the Communist Party. On Capitol Hill, few Democrats can talk about the Communist threat. As a result, “we have made Anti-Communist China the main issue of the RSC platform.”
He singled out the RSC organization for a major legislative blitz last week, introducing more than a dozen pieces of legislation on the CCP and throwing out a report that revealed Biden’s weakness on the issue.
Return to the “Party of Fiscal Responsibility”
Banks said the Republican Study Committee has been very focused on the budget, the national debt, and fiscal responsibility, and that it is important to get the Republican Party back to the party of fiscal responsibility, which the Democrats are currently trying to push with their aggressive, expensive spending.
The RSC is an organization that has always believed in a strong national defense,” he said. Remember, with Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) threatening to cut defense spending, the RSC will take the lead in maintaining a Trump-era defense budget that restores our national defense and enhances our military strength. The Republican Study Committee has been committed to pro-Family policies and policies that protect lives.”
Continuing Trump’s conservative values and policies such as immigration
Banks said, “We will not shy away from our socially conservative values, so we will be at the forefront of those fights. These are traditional conservative values that go back to the conservative platform of the Reagan era, but the new Republican Study Committee recognizes that we also have to adopt some of the things of the Trump era, and the populist views of the Trump Administration.”
On immigration, he argues that Trump’s tough immigration policies were the right ones, from building the wall to enacting policies that cracked down on illegal immigration, but they were all pulled by the Biden Administration. And this is a key area of RSC’s involvement, and RSC will be at the forefront of this debate.
In the technology arena, Banks said Republicans have ceded to Silicon Valley for 20 years. Now the RSC will be in the middle when it comes to facing technology scrutiny and Section 230 for big companies. Now the Republican Party is going to fight Big Tech nationally. “We didn’t do it before Trump, but now let’s make this the main thing for the platform,” he said.
Pushing election integrity to win both houses in 2022 and the White House in 2022
Banks believes the issue of election integrity is no more important to the Republican Party today. the RSC has introduced the Safe Democracy Act, which makes appropriate election reforms at the state level and works with conservative state lawmakers across the country.
He noted that Democrats are pushing for HR1, which would federalize elections and make mail-in voting available to all states and do many other dangerous things, such as giving DC states status and requiring public funding of open campaigns. In a larger sense, Republicans will win if they focus on these issues.
But he also warned that “when we focus on the petty arguments within the party, when we have a petty internal fight over whether to write Trump out of our party, then we lose.”
Banks said the RSC is “maneuvering the ship” within the House Republican Conference to build consensus on the Republican agenda in the post-Trump era so that Republicans can unite not only to win a majority in 2022, but also to win back the White House in 2024.
He again stressed that President Trump is by far the most popular Republican. I don’t know if he’s going to run, but if he doesn’t run, then only someone who recognizes the Republican tradition of the Reagan conservative platform, and who combines the modern ideas of the Trump era, will win,” he said. And the candidate who figures that out will win the Republican primary and win the White House in 2024.”
Bringing in the hopefuls for 2024
Banks said that in addition to inviting key thought leaders, he wants to bring in people who are hopeful in 2024, such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Vice President Mike Pence, as well as others to meet with RSC members and discuss the issues.
Banks said the RSC will reveal the hypocrisy of the left. He said, “This Democratic Party is not the Democratic Party of my father’s day. It’s a radical Democratic Party that has so far veered too far to the left, putting the interests of things like the Green New Deal and radical environmentalism ahead of the interests of working people. The more working people around the country see Democrats putting their fundamental interests ahead of working people.”
He is confident that Republicans will be more successful in 2022 and beyond. He said, “We can expect to be engaged in all the major battles in the years ahead.”
Miller, a former senior Trump adviser, told Breitbart News Service last week that Banks “has a bold and courageous vision to turn the RSC into an in-house think tank for populist conservative policy and legislation.”
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