INDIANAPOLIS — Whitley County Councilman Jim Banks stopped by my office about 16 years ago, doing what any ambitious young politician would do. He was seeking contacts and advice — and conspicuously putting his pin on a political map.
While studying at Indiana University, he was president of the campus Republicans. After beginning his career in construction and real estate, the Whitley County Republican Party chairman was elected to the Indiana Senate in 2010. He served in the U.S. Navy Reserve, including a supply corps tour in Afghanistan. Six years later, he was in Congress. And last November, he was elected in a landslide to the U.S. Senate.
The early rendition of Jim Banks was a friendly, curious public servant with a distinct conservative pedigree.
At times he seemed restless and potentially reckless, as early in his Indiana Senate tenure he seemed to foment leadership change. By the time Banks declared his candidacy for Indiana’s 3rd Congressional District, state Senate President Pro Tem David Long stood by his side.
In 2017, Howey Politics Indiana observed, “Entering Congress, many thought Banks would follow U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman’s footsteps into the Tea Party Freedom Caucus. Instead, Banks has insisted that his priority membership is the Republican conference. While he has gained conspicuous national media early in his career, Banks comes off as thoughtful and less of a firebrand than many had forecast. Banks is in study mode these days.”
Today, with chaos engulfing Washington, Wall Street and the international theaters of economics and war, Banks has gone full MAGA. He embraced President Donald Trump as a calculated point of emphasis, accurately believing it would send him to the U.S. Senate, whether Mitch Daniels ran or not.
That was on display last week when Mack Schroeder, a Department of Health and Human Services employee who became one of thousands laid off thanks to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency cutbacks, approached Banks as he was entering a Senate office building elevator.
“Hi, I was a worker at HHS and I was fired, uh, illegally on Feb. 14,” Schroeder said in a video of the exchange posted on social media. “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 responded.
Schroeder: “I deserved it?”
Banks: “You probably deserved it.”
Schroeder: “I deserved it? Wow. Yeah, that’s great to hear. Why did I deserve it?”
Banks: “Because you seem like a clown.”
The video went viral.
A day or so later, Banks vowed he “won’t back down,” posting on X: “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. 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.”
Schroeder, who says he worked on Health and Human Services programs for elderly and disabled Americans, showed up at Banks’ office a week later with other laid-off employees, telling NBC News, “He doesn’t care about his constituents. There is no plan in place once these cuts are made.”
What we’ve witnessed here is a Hoosier senator who lacks empathy. And that is a distinct departure from the seven men who have held these two offices over the past 60 years.
Doug Richardson, who covered the Indiana Statehouse as an Associated Press reporter, posted on Facebook, “I wrote about Indiana politics for years. I would meet Dick Lugar, a Rhodes Scholar, for breakfast a couple times a year. I would interview John Brademas and Phil Sharp, both PhDs. I had civil, thoughtful discussions with Dan Quayle, in his three elective offices, and Dan Coats, in his two. And, of course, I loved getting together with Bill Hudnut, Rex Early, Lee Hamilton, Bob Orr, Mike Pence, Mitch Daniels and others. That’s a long list. And I’m happy, through a long career, that I never encountered an asshole like Jim Banks.”
Former WTHR-TV reporter Kevin Rader added in another public Facebook post: “I have just watched Indiana Sen. Banks comment to a fired worker. All I have to say is there is no Richard Lugar in that. No Evan Bayh, no Lee Hamiltion or Dan Coats is that. But most of all there is no Indiana in that.”
Banks has since posted on his official X account multiple times that the video was a “hard truth.”
He added, “I went to Washington to decrease the size and scope of the federal government. No one is entitled to a taxpayer-funded job, especially in positions that waste those funds. I fully support President Trump and DOGE’s mission to eliminate waste. I won’t apologize for it.”
Banks represented one of the nation’s most uncompetitive congressional districts (the Cook Partisan Index puts Indiana’s 3rd CD +18% Republican). Now, as he occupies a Senate seat for the next six years, Banks has acquired an aura of invincibility.
Hoosier voters want to elect public servants who are “fighters.” And amid the chaos, they also expect a little empathy.
Brian A. Howey is a senior writer and columnist for Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs. Follow him on X @hwypol and Blue Sky @hwypol.bsky.social.
