GOP Sen. Jim Banks says GOP Rep. Max Miller should resign if ‘allegations are true’: Full interview

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: And joining me now is Republican Senator Jim Banks of Indiana. Senator Banks, welcome to Meet the Press. [00:00:07] Tommy Tupperville: Thank you. Good to be with you. [00:00:09] Speaker 1: It is great to have you here. I want to start right there on Michigan, this big Senate race. More than 1.5 million voters participated in the Democratic primary. That is a 64 percent increase in turnout from the 2024 primary in Michigan. What do you think Mike Rogers needs to do to win over some of those Democrats and more independent voters? [00:00:35] Tommy Tupperville: Well, Mike Rogers just barely lost in the last cycle to Alyssa Slotkin who ran as a moderate. And what you just heard from with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, you just heard from the most extreme socialist-leaning Democrat candidate in America. That's why Chuck Schumer did everything that he could to block El-Sayed from winning the Democrat primary. This week you had Democrats scrambling. You had prominent Democrats like the former press secretary to Jill Biden endorsed Mike Rogers. Julian Epstein wrote that Democrats have lost their moral authority by nominating El-Sayed. Mike Rogers is already building a strong Democrats for Rogers group with momentum to pick up those voters. And let me say this. I grew up in a union factory household, the son of a factory worker, not far from Michigan in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Those factory workers and their families are not going to vote for El-Sayed and his extreme positions. He can try to erase everything that he said during the primary about abolishing prisons, defunding the police, his attack on a lot of the policies that make those factory workers' jobs possible. He wants to open borders. Those families just want to raise their kids and keep them safe. And El-Sayed wants to abolish prisons and defund the police. Mike Rogers is going to win big in November. The first time in 30 years that Michigan has elected a Republican will be this November. And Republicans have never felt better about keeping the Senate majority. [00:02:11] Speaker 1: Well, let me ask you, you describe Dr. El-Sayed as extreme. Your Senate colleague Tommy Tupperville has called him a terrorist. Senator Ted Cruz said El-Sayed wants, quote, Sharia law. To be fair, there's no evidence to support those claims. Do you believe those attacks go too far, Senator? [00:02:31] Tommy Tupperville: Well, Kristen, look, he wants to deny it now, but El-Sayed campaigned as a Democrat socialist. He attended six different DSA-type events, including fundraisers for Democrat socialists. The Democrat socialist group in Detroit praised him. They said that he was one of their own. He staked out socialist positions. He can call himself a capitalist. This week, after the Democrat primary is over, but look at everything that he said and his record during the Democrat primary, and you see that he is the most extreme candidate. If he were, if he were, if he were happened to, if he happened to get elected in the November election, he would make Bernie Sanders look squishy in the, in the, in the, in the Democrat caucus in the Senate. Even, even, even Bernie Sanders has staked out positions to try to distance himself from what, from what, from what El-Sayed has campaigned with. And you, you just heard in the segment in your interview, he still refuses to say that he doesn't align or that he won't campaign with Piker, who is a, who is a, who is a radical, who, who, who said that America deserve 9-11. He, he, he campaigned with a lot of figures like that during the primary and still today, he won't, he won't, he won't distance himself from those extreme voices and those characters in the, in the, in the socialist wing of the Democrat party. This isn't just about Michigan though, this is about Indiana and what the Democrat party has become nationwide. And that's why Democrats are strength, scrambling this week to distance themselves from El-Sayed and his, his radical positions. [00:04:04] Speaker 1: Well, let me ask you now about the biggest issue for voters, the economy, one of the most defining issues of the midterm. Certainly President Trump said this week, quote, I think we should be given an A plus on the economy. Friday's jobs report, as you know, says the U.S. lost 23,000 jobs in July. Do you think President Trump deserves an A plus on the economy, Senator? [00:04:29] Tommy Tupperville: I do. And here's why. Every single jobs report, except for this one, has exceeded expectations. And there's, there's still good news, even in this July jobs report about the resurgence of manufacturing jobs and construction jobs that are being created in America. Don't never forget that the last two years that Joe Biden was in the White House, we lost a quarter of a million manufacturing jobs. And we've seen a significant resurgence because of President Trump's trade policies in bringing back those good-paying factory jobs, advanced manufacturing jobs. We're seeing it nowhere more than in states like Indiana. That's the return of the made-in-America economy. Those are long-term, sustainable jobs. And we're going to keep seeing that in this Trump economy. So this jobs report was a blip. It's the only one on President Trump's watch so far that, that, that, that lacked job growth. But baked within it, you see the increase in manufacturing jobs, especially as you look at the AI economy that we're entering into. These are the, these construction jobs and manufacturing jobs are the types of jobs we want to bring back to America. [00:05:39] Speaker 1: And yet, Senator, most polls show that President Trump is underwater on his handling of the economy, in part being dragged down by the war with Iran. And I do want to turn to Iran. I want to play something that you said about President Trump back in June of 2025. This was before the president had taken any military action in Iran. Take a look. [00:06:00] Tommy Tupperville: President Trump is the greatest peacemaker of my lifetime. He is the only president not to get our country into a new war in the last four decades. [00:06:11] Speaker 1: Senator, do you still see President Trump, now we're nearly five months into the war with Iran, as the greatest peacemaker? [00:06:21] Tommy Tupperville: I do. His legacy is going to be largely wrapped up in ensuring that Iran never has a nuclear weapon. I do not want my kids to grow up in a world where Iran has a nuclear weapon that will be pointed directly at the United States of America, at our troops abroad, at our allies. And President Trump is the first president in 47 years who's had the guts to stand up to the regime there and tell them that they're not going to get away with it. There's been lots of good news of what's happened. The greatest military in the world as an Afghanistan veteran myself, watching what our military has accomplished, wiping out 85% of Iran's ballistic missiles, Iran's defense industrial base, and making sure that they can never achieve their ultimate goal to have that nuclear weapon, that's all good news. And President Trump's use of the naval blockade, he's crippled Iran's economy. That in and of itself will bring lasting peace, not just to the Middle East, but to the rest of the world and projects American strength in a way that I've never seen in my lifetime. So, he is a peacemaker. This is a key part of ensuring peace for the ages, and President Trump deserves a lot of credit for it. [00:07:33] Speaker 1: All right, before I let you go, I do want to ask you about another big issue looming over the midterms about your Republican colleague, Congressman Max Miller. A number of your Republican colleagues in the Senate, as you know, including his former father-in-law, Senator Bernie Moreno, are calling on Congressman Miller to resign. Now, he has been accused, just so our viewers know, of emotionally and physically abusing his ex-wife and his two-year-old daughter. He adamantly denies those allegations. But do you believe Congressman Miller should drop his re-election bid and resign from Congress? [00:08:10] Tommy Tupperville: Well, the allegations are deeply troubling, and I know I serve with his father-in-law, Senator Bernie Sanders. I know everyone involved, and it's heartbreaking to see all of this play out publicly. The allegations against him are terrible, and if he's endangering a seat in Congress, as we're trying to keep the majority in the House, and he should drop out if he's endangering that seat. He should drop out because of the allegations against him. But at the end of the day, it's heartbreaking to see when kids are involved, something like this happen, and I want to pray for his family, all those involved, especially the children, and hope that justice prevails in this case. [00:08:52] Speaker 1: And just to be very clear, Ohio Senator John Husted also calling on him to resign. Are you saying you believe he should resign? It sounds like that's what you're saying. [00:09:03] Tommy Tupperville: Well, if the allegations are true and watching this play out publicly, of course he should resign. I live in Indiana. This is a race in northern Ohio and the other part of the state. I don't know enough about the political dynamics, but I've watched the allegations. They're deeply troubling, and I pray for all involved, especially the kid, and hope that justice prevails in this case. [00:09:31] Speaker 1: Senator Jim Banks, thank you so very much for your time. We really appreciate your joining us this morning. [00:09:37] Tommy Tupperville: Thank you.