Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said that he has no regrets about telling a fired Health and Human Services (HHS) employee he “probably deserved it.” This comes after a video of the exchange gained attention on social media.
In the video (below), former HHS employee Mack Schroeder approaches Banks in a Senate office building on Tuesday. Schroeder, who had been fired in the layoffs at HHS, asked Banks how he planned to ensure that people in his state still received the services they needed. Banks responded, “You probably deserved it,” referring to Schroeder’s firing. When Schroeder asked why, Banks added, “Because you seem like a clown.”
Later, Banks posted a video on X (formerly Twitter) where he stood by his comments. He said he wasn’t sorry for calling Schroeder a clown, and explained his stance further.
“The Democrats and the left-wing media have lost their minds because I told a left-wing activist in the halls of the Senate office buildings yesterday what I really thought: A clown is a clown, who’s chasing senators through the halls with a cellphone, complaining about losing a left-wing woke job in the federal government that should have never been a job to begin with,” Banks said.
“I won’t back down. I won’t apologize for it,” he continued. “I support President Trump and the DOGE effort 100 percent to cut wasteful spending and woke jobs out of the federal government, and we’re just getting started.”
These firings are part of efforts by the Trump administration to reduce staff in federal agencies, including HHS, which recently let go of 10,000 employees. This comes on top of earlier job cuts, totaling another 10,000 staff losses.
Some of the fired employees, including Schroeder, have been protesting on Capitol Hill this week.
In a CNN interview, Schroeder explained that his work at HHS focused on supporting people with disabilities and older adults. However, he said he wasn’t asking Banks for his job back. Instead, he wanted to know what the senator planned to do about the social services being cut, especially for vulnerable groups.
“First of all, I didn’t ask him, ‘What is he doing to help me get reinstated in my position?’ I wasn’t asking, ‘Why did I get fired? What are you going to do to make sure me and other employees get their jobs?’ I was just asking, ‘What are you doing about the social services that are being cut specifically for people with disabilities?’ And his response was just that I deserve to get fired,” Schroeder said.
Schroeder continued, “So I think he didn’t even answer my question. It wasn’t really about that, and I still have not heard a response about what the plan is, as many of these staff get cut and the programs are potentially defunded.”
Check out the video that sparked the backlash below:
NEW: Republican Senator Jim Banks calls a fired HHS worker a "clown" after the man followed him around, demanding he get his job back.
You could not have timed the elevator door closing better than this.
Worker: "Are you gonna do anything to stop what's happening?"
Banks: "You… pic.twitter.com/TUcnGY5wb0
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 1, 2025
