{"id":33024,"date":"2021-06-19T07:14:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-19T11:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/?p=33024"},"modified":"2021-06-15T13:48:06","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T17:48:06","slug":"the-republican-trying-to-bridge-the-trump-pence-divide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/the-republican-trying-to-bridge-the-trump-pence-divide\/","title":{"rendered":"The Republican trying to bridge the Trump-Pence divide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Rep. Jim Banks is reshaping the Republican Study Committee to align with the ex-president still ruling the GOP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trump-Pence tensions within the GOP haven\u2019t entirely disappeared from Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two men have gone their separate ways, retreating to sunny West Palm Beach in Donald Trump\u2019s case and splitting time between the Beltway and Indiana in Mike Pence\u2019s. But the odd coupling of traits that defined their relationship in office \u2014 Pence\u2019s polished disposition and traditional conservatism, Trump\u2019s brash outbursts and populist politics \u2014 lives on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It exists inside the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus for House GOP members, whose newly minted chair Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) wants to meld the former president and vice president\u2019s approaches to become a force for the next iteration of the conservative movement. What helps is that Banks, a 41-year-old member of Congress from small-town Indiana, is every bit as mild-mannered as Pence but has policy instincts firmly rooted in Trumpism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven though his style is somewhat understated or subdued,\u201d explains Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), a close friend of Banks and an RSC member. \u201cJim knows what needs to be done, which problems need fixing and how to fix them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take China. Banks, an Afghanistan veteran, saw how Trump\u2019s anti-China rhetoric appealed to working-class voters and decided to make confronting Beijing a serious part of the group\u2019s legislative agenda after years of focusing almost exclusively on budget and spending reforms. He and his allies recently introduced more than 20 bills narrowly tailored to the China threat \u2014 ranging from a push to end U.S. investments in the country\u2019s military industrial base to requiring consumer protection warnings on apps and downloadable software with origins in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese aren\u2019t traditional issues that the RSC is focused on, but Trump taught us that these are issues we have to focus on in order to bring voters over and win elections,\u201d Banks said in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The RSC had long been the dominant conservative faction in the House, but it was somewhat eclipsed by the House Freedom Caucus, which was founded in 2015 by GOP lawmakers who viewed the RSC as too meek. These hard-liners, including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and future White House chiefs of staff Mick Mulvaney and Mark Meadows, ultimately became some of Trump\u2019s most loyal allies and won real influence during his term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, as the GOP debates its relationship with the volatile one-term president, Banks is looking to boost the RSC\u2019s profile by embracing Trump while trying to smooth off his sharpest edges. It\u2019s an approach that could end up satisfying no one in such a polarized moment. But if he succeeds, the group could offer an operating manual of sorts for how the rest of the conservative machine should run between now and 2024 while giving him a prominent platform to rise in the House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first chapter of such a manual would probably consist of just five letters: F-I-G-H-T.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the course of an hour-long interview, Banks invoked the word more than a dozen times, reflecting just how deeply Trump\u2019s pugilistic style has seeped into nearly every corner of the conservative movement \u2014 including the once-sleepy RSC. Only 48 members of the 148-member caucus voted to certify the 2020 election results following the deadly Jan. 6 riot of Trump supporters, while the remaining 100 followed Trump\u2019s lead to overturn the outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s bellicosity won him a cult-like following on the right, while his vulgarity was often excused by religious conservatives willing to avert their eyes as long as he backed their policy preferences on Israel, abortion and religious freedom. Even after the pro-Trump mob ransacked the Capitol, the self-avowed constitutional conservatives that Banks and his flock represent remain just as enthralled with Trumpism as they were at the height of his presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat the president taught us,\u201d Banks said, \u201cis how to fight back. The Republican Party base was looking for a fighter and they got that in Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWill the GOP reflect that moving forward? I think that\u2019s a big question,\u201d he added. \u201cWhat you\u2019ve seen with RSC is we\u2019re a quiet group and we\u2019re not going to be quiet any longer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result, in the emerging version of the RSC under Banks\u2019 leadership, is a group that intends to remain true to its ideological roots but with an ever so Trumpian flare. They will keep one eye trained on social and fiscal policies that have long been hallmarks of the conservative movement \u2014 akin to those Pence fought for during his 2005-2007 tenure as RSC chair \u2014 and the other on a new set of cultural topics that Republicans have only just begun to tackle under Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding new legs to the stool<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some ways, the Banks experiment \u2014 call it the kinder, gentler form of Trumpism \u2014 has already begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s the RSC-led effort to protect the Hyde Amendment\u2019s long-standing ban on federal funding for abortion procedures as well as Banks\u2019 \u201cSave Democracy\u201d project, an ode-to-Trump plan to impose tighter voting rules that Banks circulated to his conservative colleagues just two days after the Capitol riot. There\u2019s the drafting of the RSC\u2019s signature budget \u2014 a fiscally conservative blueprint released annually by the group since 1995 \u2014 alongside its campaign to confront the alleged disproportional censorship of right-wing voices by Big Tech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe RSC has always been a conservative rudder of the House, but Jim also wants to get more involved in pushing out conservative policy alternatives,\u201d House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), himself a former RSC chair, said in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can build upon the conservative movement by adding other pieces to the three-legged stool,\u201d Banks added, referring to the conservative movement\u2019s longtime focus on building up a strong national defense, protecting traditional social values and championing free markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But beyond the new policy pillars the caucus is adopting, there is an almost excessive emphasis on ensuring the promises surrounding these issues are fulfilled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This last part is shaping up to be the biggest challenge for conservatives as they navigate the post-Trump political landscape without their No. 1 champion nearby. Trump has emerged only a handful of times since relocating to Florida, though he made an appearance on Sunday at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference to encourage party leaders to continue fighting for his agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, after only a month as RSC chair, Banks is already seen as a rising star in the House GOP. He spoke alongside House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy at a CPAC panel titled \u201cWinning Back America,\u201d and has declined to rule out a run for House GOP conference chair. That\u2019s the position currently held by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), perhaps the biggest Republican Trump critic in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banks has also shown a media savvy lacking in many of his predecessors \u2014 inviting some of the brashest voices on the right to meet with members of his caucus, and generating headlines accordingly. Ahead of President Joe Biden\u2019s inauguration, he hosted then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a rumored 2024 hopeful, to discuss the future of the conservative movement at an off-campus gathering with GOP lawmakers that also featured remarks from Fox News\u2019 Tucker Carlson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banks organized a similar meeting on Wednesday with Stephen Miller, who spoke to roughly 75 Republicans about immigration. But that gathering also revealed the RSC\u2019s unique role as a sometimes uneasy coalition of many different GOP factions: Freshman Rep. Mar\u00eda Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) tangled with the former Trump aide over his restrictionist agenda, and some lawmakers even told POLITICO they skipped the event because Miller was the guest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banks has also organized caucus-wide meetings with figures who represent a more subdued version of Trumpism. A day before Miller\u2019s appearance, RSC members heard from Pence, whose standing within the conservative movement long predates his association with his former West Wing boss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pence, who led the group partway through George W. Bush\u2019s second term, encouraged his audience to remain united against the Biden agenda \u2014 including the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill currently making its way through Congress \u2014 and said he has plans to start his own policy group in the coming months. Earlier this year, the RSC also heard from former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, another top Republican with her eye on 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first time I ever heard of RSC was when Mike Pence was chairman,\u201d Banks said. \u201cHe was the emerging conservative champion and figurehead that I aspire to be at this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Banks is on the record as an early endorser of a Pence 2024 bid, something the former vice president has begun laying the groundwork for should he choose to run. \u201cFor me, Mike Pence is at the top of the list,\u201d he said, while conceding that Trump would most likely win the party\u2019s nomination if he decided to mount his own comeback bid in four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s that recognition of Trump\u2019s abiding influence on the party, which has long rankled some conservatives, that will serve as Banks\u2019 north star as he spends the next year working to position the GOP for a 2022 takeover of the House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though he\u2019s not necessarily a MAGA fanatic \u2014 he admits to having taken a while to warm to the former president\u2019s style and told the Washington Examiner shortly after the November election that \u201cthe Trump agenda was what was popular, not the man\u201d \u2014 he believes there is no appetite for a Republican Party that pretends the last four years didn\u2019t happen or reverts to its pre-Trump form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Banks said Trump\u2019s coarse personality doesn\u2019t need to dictate the way conservatives behave in future policy-making ventures, he firmly believes the former president\u2019s agenda must continue to be integrated if the party hopes to survive. There is plenty of room for Trumpism \u2014 from maintaining an intense focus on China to bending conservative orthodoxy on trade and spending to not being afraid to dive deep into emerging culture wars \u2014 that can and should outlast the man himself, Banks contends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I want to do with the RSC for the next couple of years is really make the Trump legacy and the Trump platform the platform of the Republican Party and the conservative movement of the future,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd RSC is perfectly positioned to effectively do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Jim Banks is reshaping the Republican Study Committee to align with the ex-president still ruling the GOP. The Trump-Pence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33026,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2230,92,2301],"tags":[12892,10465,12,2962],"class_list":["post-33024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-community","category-election","category-general-news","tag-divide","tag-jim-banks","tag-ohio","tag-republican"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Jim_Banks_official_portrait-scaled.jpg?fit=681%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YQd9-8AE","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 09:57:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westbendnews.net\/autonews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}