(WXIN/WTTV) — Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) has responded to a viral video of him telling a fired federal worker they “probably deserved it,” saying he will not apologize and “won’t back down.”
In a video post on social media Wednesday, the senator said he was right in calling the ex-federal employee a “clown.” The employee – since identified as Mack Schroeder – was reportedly an HHS worker who helped provide support to older Americans and people with disabilities.
Banks’ response video can be seen below:
“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,” Banks said. “A clown is a clown who’s chasing Senators through the halls with a cell phone complaining about losing a left-wing, woke job in the federal government that should have never been a job to begin with.”
The cell phone footage — shared widely on social media and viewed millions of times — began making the online rounds Tuesday afternoon.
The 26-second clip shows Banks walking through a Senate building corridor before getting onto an elevator with several staffers.
The person filming the interaction — Mack Schroeder — follows Banks as he walks by and says he was among the 30,000+ federal employees recently laid off or fired by Elon Musk’s DOGE. He tells Banks he was fired “illegally” from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.
“Hi, I was a worker at HHS and I was fired, uh, illegally on Feb. 14,” Schroeder says as the video begins. “Uh, there are many people who are not getting Social Service programs, uh, especially people with disabilities.”
Schroeder then asks Banks what his plan is.
Schroeder: “Are you going to do anything to stop what’s happening?”
Banks then leans around another person in the elevator and looks toward the camera for his response.
Banks: “Uh, you probably deserved it.”
Schroeder: “I deserved it?”
Banks: “You probably deserved it.”
Schroeder: “I deserved it? Wow. Yeah, that’s great to hear.”
Bystander: “Aw, dude that’s sad.”
Schroeder: “Why did I deserve it?”
Banks: “Because you seem like a clown.”
As Banks finishes his sentence, the elevator doors close. The bystander who had commented earlier then says, “Okay sir, you shouldn’t have said that on camera.” She gets cut off as the video ends.
The video was soon shared by large social media accounts and garnered millions of views. Political commentator/filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, former NFL player Antonio Brown and nonprofit People for the American Way have shared the video, garnering mixed reactions.
“LMAO! Who knew Senator Jim Banks was so funny,” wrote Eric Daugherty.
“That is not how U.S. Senators should talk to civil servants,” Marissa D. Barrera wrote. “That is egregious.”
Banks has since posted on his official X account multiple times regarding the video, including saying the video was a “hard truth” and changing his profile picture to a screenshot from the clip:
The senator even replied to Brown — the former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver who named Banks as his “Cracker of the Day.”
“Thanks, AB,” Banks replied. “I’m honored!”
In a statement sent Tuesday to FOX59/CBS4, Banks doubled down on the sentiments he appeared to share in the video, but did not directly address the clip:
“I went to Washington to decrease the size and scope of the federal government. No one is entitled to a taxpayer-funded job, especially in positions that waste those funds. I fully support President Trump and DOGE’s mission to eliminate waste.”
– Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.)
On Wednesday, Banks continued to address the incident on social media. In his response video posted on X, the senator again doubled down.
“I won’t apologize for it,” he said. “I support President Trump and the DOGE effort 100%: to cut wasteful spending and woke jobs out of the federal government. And we’re just getting started.”
In a follow-up post on Wednesday afternoon, the senator called Schroeder a “left-wing activist” with an overpaid position.
“I have no sympathy for left-wing activists who have been let go from overpaid positions that should never have existed,” he wrote on X. “I do have sympathy for the hardworking Hoosiers whose tax dollars have been wasted on bankrolling these positions.”
(Mack Schroeder)
During an interview Tuesday with FOX59/CBS4, Mack Schroeder said he was hired at HHS as a budget analyst in October 2024.
He worked on legislation for the Administration for Community Living, which is responsible for providing programs to individuals with disabilities and older adults.
“In February, on Valentine’s Day actually, I received a notice that I would be terminated after a month and put on administrative leave in the meantime,” Schroeder said.
Schroeder confirmed the video was taken Tuesday morning as he and other federal workers have continued to meet and try to convince various politicians about the importance of their work.
“I’ve been going to the Hill with a group of other fired federal workers from all different agencies, a lot from USAID, a lot of other workers from HHS, CDC, NIH as well as folks from the Social Security Administration,” Schroeder said. “I really ran the gamut of anyone who has been impacted by these cuts. We have been doing that for a little over a month now.”
Schroeder said he and others will typically schedule meetings with politicians to discuss why it is important that they return to work as soon as possible to continue providing their respective services.
“A lot of times, we will also catch senators in the hallway and take that as an opportunity to talk to them about the work we’ve done, show them a little bit of our story and see how they are really going to commit to standing up to what is happening with DOGE and firing all of these workers who didn’t have performance issues, who were really just doing the work that they sought out to do by being a public servant,” Schroeder said.
Schroeder said he hoped Banks would “care more about his constituents” and that he was “taken aback” by what Banks said Tuesday morning in the nation’s capital.
“Just to hear when I was saying that I work on programs for people with disabilities, and the only response he had to say was, ‘You seem like a clown’,” Schroeder said. “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. I would hope that he would care more about his constituents to have concerns about a lot of these programs changing.”
DOGE — or the Department of Government Efficiency — is an initiative created by the second Trump administration to try and cut down on federal spending. Headed by X owner Elon Musk, the department has begun targeting the jobs of thousands of federal employees.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday morning that employees across the massive U.S. Health and Human Services Department — or HHS — had received notices that their jobs were being eliminated.
The cuts, which include researchers, scientists, doctors, support staff and senior leaders, are part of a sweeping overhaul that is intended to shrink the agencies responsible for protecting and promoting Americans’ health.
Thousands of more federal employees outside of the HHS have been laid off or fired as well. These include workers for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Defense Department, the Department of Education, the IRS, the Energy Department, Homeland Security and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
