After meeting with Donald Trump on Tuesday – just a day after the FBI’s historic raid on his Mar-a-Lago residence – Rep. Jim Banks told Fox News he and his Republican colleagues believe the former president is primed for reelection in 2024.
Banks, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, led a meeting with Trump and 12 of his congressional colleagues Tuesday, and sitting with Laura Ingraham on “The Ingraham Angle” later in the day, the Republican congressman enthused that Trump has never been so “fired up” and that he “is not deterred” by the ongoing legal scrutiny.
“I’ve never seen President Trump as fired up as what he was tonight. He is not deterred. He’s not fazed at all by what the DOJ has done to him in [the] unprecedented move of raiding the home of a former president,” Banks told Ingraham. “There were a dozen of us that visited with President Trump tonight. We wanted to go and tell President Trump we stand with him.”
And the congressman doesn’t believe that support is limited to his personal circle. Asked by Ingraham how he thinks the FBI’s action could impact when Trump announces his presidential bid for 2024, Banks said the sooner the better.
“If anything, the raid unifies Republicans in the outrage. And we’re all hearing it from constituents in our districts – I’m hearing it from every Republican colleague in the House that I’ve talked to today, and I’ve talked to dozens of them today about what happened last night: It unifies us in our outrage to fight back,” Banks insisted. “It paves the way for Donald Trump to unify the party once again and run for president.”
While it’s widely speculated when Trump may announce his candidacy – an announcement is reportedly a matter of when, not if – Banks believes Trump publicizing his intentions early will only help Republican candidates going into November’s midterm elections. (There’s, of course, been arguments from Democrats that argue the opposite.)
“I really believe if he gets out and hits the campaign trail, he’s going to fire up Republicans and non-traditional Republicans to come out to the polls in November to fight back against the corruption of this administration,” Banks said, adding: “That outrage is going to lead to a massive turnout of Americans who are going to say, ‘We’re not going to take it anymore. We’re going to take back our country from Joe Biden, the radical Democrats, and those who would abuse their power in such a way.’”
Watch a portion of the interview in the video above.
