Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Saturday that the Republican Party is destined to lose future elections if they erase former President Donald Trump and the connection he made with working-class voters.
Banks said at a panel with House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and American Conservative Union (ACU) chairman Matt Schlapp that a recent poll found McCarthy is the most popular Republican in the House.
However, the Hoosier conservative noted that the least popular Republicans want to remove Trump and his connection with the GOP’s working class.
“There are very few Republicans; the least popular are those that want to erase Donald Trump and Donald Trump supporters from our party. Let me tell you, if that happens, we will not win back the majority in 2022; we definitely won’t win back the White House in 2024 if you erase Donald Trump,” Banks told the CPAC crowd.
Banks said that McCarthy is also the right conservative to lead Republicans to take back the House in 2022. McCarthy noted that Democrats only hold a five-member majority in the House, the slimmest majority their party has had in over 100 years.
Banks said, “Kevin McCarthy is the right leader for the right time to win back the majority; he’s going to be the best Speaker of the House in a generation.”
The panel took place after Politico wrote that, in the wake of House Republican Conference chair Liz Cheney’s (R-WY) vote to impeach Trump, McCarthy is looking to Banks to help with House GOP messaging. Banks also told Politico that he hopes to fill the “void” in the House GOP messaging apparatus.
Banks said that the Republican Party’s strength lies in its appeal to working-class voters.
“If you identify as an American, you belong in the Republican Party,” he said.
“Donald Trump taught us many things; more than anything else, he taught us to be the party of the working class since Reagan,” he added.
In contrast to the GOP, Banks said, “The Democrat Party is the party of multinational corporations, big business, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and the pro-China party.”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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