Sen. Jim Banks Joins!

**Jason Hammer** (0:00)
It's America's birthday week, America 250, baby. We're feeling good.
Team USA's got a game tonight.
It's The Hammer and Nigel Show. I'm Jason Hammer. Jerry Lopez is filling in for Big Nige. Let's go to the hotline right now, bring on Senator Jim Banks. Senator, welcome back to the show, and we've been talking a lot about these Supreme Court decisions, and the one that bothers me is the mail-in votes counted after election day. I think that's ridiculous. But really, it wouldn't be that big of a deal, Senator, if the Senate could pass the SAVE Act, you know?

**Jim Banks** (0:43)
I totally agree, and President Trump said that yesterday.
I've been digging through this decision and a lot of the other decisions, and it's pretty clear that this should motivate every Republican in Congress, especially these squishy Republican senators who are holding out on the SAVE America Act, that it's needed more than ever because of this. I mean, if states can get away with counting ballots that come in days after election day, I'll never forget the election in 2020, when states like Pennsylvania and Arizona, and other states rigged the 2020 presidential election, by doing exactly this, all mail-in ballots, counting ballots for days after election day.
These types of shenanigans have been used to alter the outcome of elections. So this is why we have to pass the Save America Act. I totally agree. We got to do whatever it takes to pass it. President Trump came last Wednesday to our Senate lunch, and it's been well reported that it wasn't a very pleasant lunch. He came with a tough love message, and the message was directed at some of the squishier members of the Republican Senate Conference, and a handful of them are not running again. One of them that just lost his primary because President Trump endorsed his opponent and his primary, got into a shouting match with the president, and it didn't go well for the senator that just got defeated. But President Trump's message was, look, I don't care how you do it, you got to fight for it. And we could get in to all of the intricacies of senate rules and the filibuster and nuking the filibuster. But really, it's bigger than that. Just find another way to do it. And I have a colleague and a friend from Florida, Ana Polina Luna, who's fighting in the house to get it planted into the defense bill or another bill in the house. It's that same kind of fight that we need in the senate to figure out, attach it to a must pass bill, to a spending bill, do another reconciliation bill, whatever it takes. Let's show the American people who broadly support the Save America Act that this is something that we care about. And this Supreme Court decision yesterday, I think it just hits home why it's so important and why we got to get it done.

**Jason Hammer** (3:05)
And Senator, it's not like this is something that's one sided. You look at the polling, this is something that I think even Democrats favor, but for whatever reason, when you get into the voting chamber, when you get into the people's house, as we call it in Washington, everybody plays partisan politics here. And for one reason or the other, it can't get across the finish line.
Go back to the filibuster for just a moment. And I know we could sit here and play what if forever, but it feels like this is the most likely path for trying to get this through. Would you be in favor of nuking the filibuster and pass this through?

**Jim Banks** (3:44)
I'm all for it. I've been on the record for it. President Trump knows that. And I just think this issue is so fundamental. And this is the problem with the public statement by a lot of Republican senators who say they are for the Save America Act, but then they don't finish the sentence. They're for it, but they're not for doing what it takes to pass it. And that's a question that every Republican in the country should be asking the Republican senators. And that's a question that you just asked me. Are you willing to nuke the filibuster to get it done? I'm willing to nuke the filibuster. My leadership knows that. The president knows that.
Let's do it. But if we don't have the votes to nuke the filibuster, because you have some senators who are hiding behind the message of I support it, but then secretly they're not willing to do what it takes, then let's find another way to do it. And that's why I like about the fight by some of my former House colleagues who are saying if the Senate is not going to nuke the filibuster, then let's plant it into a must pass bill, the FISA reauthorization, the NDAA, the next continuing resolution to fund the government, or probably the best option is to go back and do another reconciliation bill which has the same effect as nuking the filibuster. It would only require 50 votes with the vice president's tie-breaking vote, rather than 60 votes that the filibuster requires.