Sen. Jim Banks Joins!

**Nigel** (0:00)
My name is Nigel, Jason Hammer is out, military veteran, American badass, and host of the Ash Holes Podcast, Brian Alvey, long time friend of the show. We like to think of you as some, sometimes as our military correspondent. And I really want to thank you for filling in today, man. Means a lot. Gonna do it again tomorrow as well, man.

**Brian Alvey** (0:24)
Looking forward to it. This is awesome, I love it. I love hanging out with you guys anyway. We don't have Hammer here. Well, that would necessitate the need for me, but, you know, hey, this is welcome to come hang Hammer here or not. Let's do it a lot when we're at your when we're at coaches with you, too.

**Jim Banks** (0:38)
Oh, yeah.

**Brian Alvey** (0:39)
That's always a blast.

**Jim Banks** (0:40)
Oh, yeah.

**Nigel** (0:40)
Now we can't wait. We can't keep this guy on hold any longer. Indiana Senator Jim Banks calling us here on the Hammer and Nigel Show. As senator, let's start with just real quick, your overall take of the UFC freedom to 50 night outside the south lawn of the White House. I don't know if you were there or not, but what a just a powerful night of patriotism and just people smiling and having fun and just it was a great night, wasn't it?

**Jim Banks** (1:11)
Well, first of all, I thought you were introducing me there a moment ago, Nigel, and then you went to Brian. I'm a little I'm a little disappointed.

**Nigel** (1:18)
I'll work on that. My bad.

**Jim Banks** (1:20)
My bad.
Great to be with you. I wasn't there. I was I had a family commitment and other plans already. I wish I wish I could have been there, but it looked great. The White House was was a hop in place. I had lots of friends who did go and they loved every bit of it. And this is just the kickoff in the beginning of all these America 250 events that the IndyCar race in August. I will be there for that. I can't wait. And then you get all the events over the summer to celebrate this milestone in American history, the greatest country in the history of the world. So happened to be Flag Day and it happened to be President Trump's birthday. What better way to celebrate it than a UFC fight, which is very popular. I mean, there were lots of people there who aren't partisan Republicans. UFC is very popular and President Trump rolled out the red carpet, if you will, and hosted the UFC fight on the lawn of the White House. And people can complain about it all they want. But just the beginning, I think of a lot of unique celebrations that President Trump and the America 250 organization has in store for the country this summer.

**Nigel** (2:26)
And then how about the FBI, before we move on? I mean, the FBI thwarting a would-be plot against the UFC Freedom 250 And thank God, I mean, the FBI agencies from all across the nation, multiple arrests in multiple states, it is troubling to hear something like that was trying to take place.

**Jim Banks** (2:48)
Yeah, and there were a number of my colleagues who were on the list, who were targeted that night. The FBI did their job, the Secret Service, the Capitol, US. Capitol Police, these are all heroes of mine, and they worked so hard on all of these threats to prevent them. And in this case, they were able to preemptively stop an attack from happening. And that's the good news. The bad news is that there are a lot of really deranged people out there. And in this case, the whole threat was over these senators and the different people who were on the threat list because of their support of Israel. So this was an anti-Semitic, anti-American activist who was sought to attack a few Republicans because of their political beliefs. And that type of left-wing violence has no place in our country. Fortunately, we had some federal law enforcement officers who were able to stop it. But by the way, Democrats have blocked funding for our federal law enforcement, for ICE, for the Secret Service, and the Border Patrol. I mean, the Democrats are doing everything they can to truly defund the police at the federal level. You hear about attacks like this and you realize how much, how important it is that our federal law enforcement, just like our local law enforcement, how important of a job and a role they play in a society like what we have today.

**Nigel** (4:21)
Hey, look, Senator, I know this weekend is the Secretary of State vote at the Republican Convention at in Fort Wayne.