Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) mentioned he “won’t apologize” for telling a former federal employee who was fired that he “probably deserved it” as a result of he’s a “clown.”
On Tuesday, a video went viral of Mack Schroeder, who labored for the Division of Health and Human Providers, confronting Banks in a Senate hallway, asking him if he’s going to cease the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity from illegally chopping extra authorities jobs that assist People get social providers.
Within the video, Banks tells Schroeder, “You probably deserved it.” Schroeder responds in disbelief: “I deserved it? Wow. Yeah, that’s great to hear. Why did I deserve it?”
“Because you seem like a clown,” Banks responds because the elevator doorways shut.
After the video drew criticism, Banks doubled down on Wednesday, saying in a video posted on social media that Democrats and the “left-wing media have lost their minds.”
“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 mentioned. “I won’t back down. I won’t apologize for it. I support President [Donald] Trump and the DOGE effort 100% to cut wasteful spending and woke jobs out of the federal government, and we’re just getting started.”
Schroeder, who labored as a finances analyst for HHS, mentioned in an interview with FOX59/CBS4 that he was shocked by Banks’s response.
“It just really surprised me and took me aback because I know there are going to be a lot of people in the state of Indiana who are losing services as of today with these huge cuts to HHS,” Schroeder mentioned. “I would hope that he would care more about his constituents to have concerns about a lot of these programs changing.”
Allison Robbert/Bloomberg through Getty Photos
Led by billionaire Elon Musk, the Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE, has been inflicting chaos within the federal authorities by firing employees — then typically rehiring them after courtroom orders or after the administration realized how crucial their roles have been.
In Schroeder’s video, he mentioned he was fired on Feb. 14, which was when officers with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention have been instructed about 1,300 probationary workers have been dropping their jobs, based on The Related Press.
We Do not Work For Billionaires. We Work For You.
Already contributed? Log in to cover these messages.
Different HHS workers obtained discover Tuesday that their jobs have been being eradicated, based on the AP. The job cuts are anticipated to save the division $1.8 billion yearly, which is about 0.1% of the division’s $1.7 trillion finances. The cuts are wide-ranging, with impacts on medical analysis, packages geared toward stopping smoking and gun violence, and the workplace handing Freedom of Data Act requests.
