GOP senator says he 'won't apologize' after telling fired federal worker he 'deserved it'
Story by Brittany Carloni and Terry Collins, USA TODAY NETWORK
• 11h•
3 min read
Sen. Jim Banks said Wednesday
he's not apologizing after a video spread online showing the Indiana Republican calling a fired federal worker who confronted him on camera over sweeping government cuts "a clown" who “probably deserved” to lose his job.
The exchange in Washington, D.C., garnered hundreds of thousands of views on
Instagram and X. It led some conservatives to praise Banks for "brutal honesty” and others to question the senator’s remarks as thousands of
federal workers face mass layoffs under the Trump administration.
n a video
posted on X Wednesday morning, Banks said he would not "back down" from his comments or support of Trump and
the Department of Government Efficiency's federal government cuts.
"The Democrats and the left-wing media have lost their minds because I told a left-wing activist in the halls of the Senate office buildings yesterday what I really thought," said Banks in the post. "A clown is a clown, who’s chasing senators through the halls with a cellphone, complaining about losing a left-wing 'woke' job in the federal government that should have never been a federal job to begin with."
GOP lawmaker told fired federal worker 'you probably deserved it'
The senator's comments came a day after the exchange with Mack Schroeder, a
former Health and Human Services employee, who told USA TODAY he was fired on Feb. 14, and was protesting Tuesday with other fired federal workers when he recorded the interaction.
The video shows Schroeder off-camera approaching Banks before the lawmaker gets on an elevator. Schroeder asked Banks if he is "going to do anything" to stop the federal cuts, including to social service programs.
"Hi, I was a worker at HHS," Schroeder said. "I was fired illegally on February 14th. There are many people who are not getting social service programs, especially people with disabilities. Are you going to do anything to stop what’s happening?"
“You probably deserved it,” Banks responds in the video.
“Why did I deserve it?” Schroeder asked.
“Because you seem like a clown,” Banks said as the elevator doors closed. The senator is
using an image from the interaction as a “#NewProfilePic” on his X account.
US Senator-elect Jim Banks, Republican of Indiana, looks on during a photo opportunity at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on November 12, 2024.© ALLISON ROBBERT, AFP via Getty Images
Schroeder, who initially called Banks' comments
"very childish," told USA TODAY on Wednesday he wonders what Banks, a first-term U.S. senator, will do when confronted by his constituents over their concerns.
"Over 150,000 Indiana residents rely on the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Now that the entire LIHEAP staff has been fired, how will the senator ensure his constituents get heating in their homes?"
Social media attention is nothing new to Banks
It’s the second video tied to the Indiana senator that has gained widespread attention on social media in the last few weeks. In late March, Banks posted
a video on his government X account showing a staff member delivering Parlor Donuts to a town hall in Allen County held by an
Indivisible group in northeast Indiana.
Several people in the video question why he did not appear at the event to answer questions from constituents. In
the post, Banks called the organization a "Democrat anti-Trump/Banks group." The national organization said on its website that it focuses on "actions to resist the GOP's agenda."
The reaction to the videos is not unusual for Banks, a strong supporter of
President Donald Trump who has gone viral before for comments on social media. Last year, when a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records, Banks called the state an insult using an expletive in a post also on X.
Banks, who previously represented northeast Indiana in the House, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2024. He was uncontested in the Republican primary and
won the general election over his Democratic opponent by almost 20 percentage points.
