Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Jim Banks

Interview

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Joining me now, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy; and Indiana Congressman Jim Banks, who was slated to be the GOP Chair of the January 6 committee until earlier today. Congressman Banks, you actually held a call I understand with your Democrat counterpart last night. But tonight you're out.

REP. JIM BANKS (R-IN): That's right.

INGRAHAM: Now, what does this tell America about what this committee really is?

BANKS: Yes, Laura. This tells us everything we already knew that this was a political sham from the very beginning. I called the chairman yesterday and told him I look forward to working with them. I had a few questions for him about what Republicans would be allowed to do if we could call our own witnesses, some tough questions for him. He hemmed and hawed. And now today I understand why they never intended to work with us to begin with. This was a political sham from the beginning. They proved it today.

They knew that Jim Jordan and I would ask the tough questions that they didn't want to answer about the systemic breakdown of security at the Capitol on January six. And ultimately, who's responsible for that, the Speaker of the House, they don't want to go there. They knew we were going to ask the tough questions and that's why they blocked us from the committee.

INGRAHAM: Now, Leader McCarthy, on CNN they have this big event tonight with Biden. But before that, your old pal Van Jones chimed in about your decision to pull out of this commission. Watch.

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VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Kevin McCarthy put Nancy Pelosi in an untenable position. This was a poison pill move. If you're trying to put together a bipartisan commission, you have to put people on the commission who are serious about the mission of the commission. When you go and get people who have already discredited the commission, we've had nothing but a show, a kangaroo court.

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INGRAHAM: Your response?

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Think about who she's objecting to? Jim Banks, who is a naval officer, who defended our nation in Afghanistan, and is chair of the largest conference, our caucus inside our conference; Jim Jordan, who is the ranking Republican on judiciary that has the jurisdiction over this, who has been on select committees, she decides that they're not worthy? Never in the history of Congress and the Select Committee, I checked with the historian, has this ever taken place where the one party decides who's all on the committee.

Look, I don't like who she puts on, from Adam Schiff, who lied to the American public; Raskin who wanted to impeach the president on day one, who objected to the electors about President Trump. But I respect her ability to do that. Why is Nancy Pelosi so afraid of the truth coming out? We cannot afford to have a speaker like this.

INGRAHAM: Well, as mentioned, Joe Biden, he was on CNN moments ago and was asked about the January 6 Commission. Watch.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I don't care if you think I'm Satan reincarnated. The fact is, you can't look at that television to say nothing happened on a 6th. You can't listen to people who say this was a peaceful march. No, I'm serious. Think about it. Think of the things being said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: Congressman Banks, all emotionalism, no facts, no one said nothing happened. That's a typical Biden dodge and, of course, all the lemmings over at CNN, just like, oh, thank you, so brilliant. It's ridiculous.

BANKS: It is ridiculous. And it's just as ridiculous as the fact that nobody has answered to this day, no Democrat has been willing to go where we wanted to go, which was to ask the questions about, why on January 6 we were so ill prepared for something that for a tragic incident that happened at the Capitol when we knew three weeks prior to January 6, we had intelligence that told us something was going to happen that day.

I met with the head of the Capitol Police Union today, Laura, and I talked to him about his views on January 6. He said they weren't prepared for that day by their leadership, they weren't equipped and given the right equipment to take care of what would happen on that day, they weren't trained for what happened that day.

I called on Bennie Thompson, the chairman of this committee to bring the head of the Capitol Police Union to the hearing next Tuesday and hear from him, someone who represents the ranking file Capitol Police officers. They don't want to go there because they know that if they go there and ask - that if we would have asked those tough questions at the end of the day, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House is responsible for that lack of leadership, the systemic breakdown of security of the Capitol, they don't want to talk about it.

INGRAHAM: Congressman McCarthy, where do we go from here? Where does this go from here? I mean, that this is all political. It is so obvious. This is all, Republicans are terrorists, Democrats are patriots. They want to roll this right into 2022. They know they're going to lose the house. But they're going to try to tag Republicans with this going forward. It's obvious.

MCCARTHY: It's obvious. It's a sham. It's a sham committee. For six months, Pelosi has played nothing but politics with this. The Senate had two bipartisan committees to investigate this and already put out two reports. They knew on December 14, there was a problem. The people in charge of parking knew more than the individuals they did to - try to protect the Capitol Police. The National Guard were in Washington, DC, but were not allowed on the Capitol. They had them correcting parking, our traffic, instead of being at the Capitol. Who made that decision why they couldn't be there?

INGRAHAM: Why was it made, Congressman? Why was that decision made, do you think? I mean, it's odd. There is a lot of people think this is very strange.

MCCARTHY: It's very strange. But when we had a 9/11 Commission, they didn't look at just what happened on 9/11, they looked at what built up to 9/11. That's what we requested. Let's understand what built up through the summer when the riots were going on and the National Guard were there and Nancy Pelosi was criticizing because they were at the Lincoln Memorial protecting it.

Was their decision made by the speaker not to have the National Guard at the Capitol that day? When they found the IEDs earlier in the day, why didn't they bring the FBI in and others? Why were the riot gear stuck in a bus, locked in a bus away from the Capitol Police officers who needed them? They put them in harm's way. And why is this speaker so afraid of the tough questions?

Look, she is a lame duck speaker. The Democrat policies has brought us crime throughout the city, opened up a border that now we have terrorists, and fit in all more than 300 percent. We now have inflation because the runaway spending. If your people really want to make a fundamental change, we need to go to takethehouse.com and make sure we stop all these politics, and really make sure the next century is the American Century.

INGRAHAM: Congressmen, great to see you both. Thank you for joining us.

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