freedoms we cherish and the faith we have in the family we want to protect. [applause] i'm out of time but god bless you fighting every single day. do not wait for election day. do what you can in your school board and your community. we have the principles, we need to take the positions back and dam it, take the high ground. thank you, god bless you guys. [applause] ♪ ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, this is winning back america, an interview with indiana representative jim banks and kevin mccarthy. please welcome the chairman of

the american conservative union. [applause] ♪ >> he's not too bad, is he? kevin mccarthy was in the back saying i see some good candidates there. i'm thinking what district can i run him for? speaking of that, election day was rough in some ways, really rough, but in other ways, it really gave me great optimism for the future. the greatest story of election night was getting so close to getting that gavel from nancy pelosi. did it shock you that you got that close? >> we got closer than anyone

thought we could get. they said we are going to lose 20 seats, no one said we are going to win seats. my dearest friend is a hard-core republican said the best we can do is lose 10. do you know why we one that? president trump worked on all these races. i want you to tell your friends, especially your liberal friends. it's the first time since 1994 no republican incumbent lost. you know who the 15 democrats lost to? conservative women and conservative minorities, each and every one of them. [applause] and what happened is even when president trump was sick with covid, he called me and said we have to keep doing this because we could not do the rallies. he would do these rallies over the phone for each district and

had the candidate on and he would talk and it would turn out the vote. all the polls said we would lose but election day, the voters said this is a new path. i have to say these two gentlemen probably won't like me saying it but i say it on a regular basis because it puts you on the spot, but i think we have a great chance of getting the majority back. >> not a chance, we are going to get the majority back. we are five seats away. [applause] >> i would bet my house -- we -- >> don't tell my wife i was betting. do you want to retire nancy pelosi? do you want to end this socialism in this country? when the house, five seats -- this is the smallest majority

democrats have had in 100 years. we can do it. >> both of you have great scores with the american conservative union. you've been a great champion. a lot of the people we have had on this stage -- mike pompeo had an outstanding record in the house of representatives. ron desantis, someone i call america's governor -- [applause] what i'm learning is when you see conservatives get put into positions of power, what you realize about the conservative philosophy is it just makes a lot of sense. what is wrong with these colleagues of years on the others of the aisle and i hear them talk and it's like where did they grow up? where did they learn this stuff? >> you have two wonder where

they come from in america when they don't like america like we do. that's what i'm reminded why we are the right party, why the republican party is on the right side of history. we heard a lot about the cancel call serve -- cancel culture these days. if you identify as an american, you belong in the republican party. [applause] >> i chair this group called the american conservative union. i love the name because they invite us to their parties and then they find out we are not -- i love the fact of being a conservative but i don't know what your responses but sometimes i think like that conservative word is not as important because we love america. >> jim is an amazing individual. he runs the biggest conservative group in congress, republican study group. he's a veteran, served in the

navy. e-services country today. that is what defines as different between the conservatives and the socialists. i wonder if we could think about the way the press likes to say republicans are fractured. here's the truth and you know it. not all of you are republicans in this crowd. we are getting everybody lined up against communism, socialism and marxism. >> a poll came out and the most repot -- most popular republican figure in congress today is kevin mccarthy. [applause] let me tell you the least popular republicans are -- very few -- the least popular are the ones who want to erase donald trump and donald trump supporters from our party.

let me tell you, if this happens, we won't win back the majority and deathly won't win back the white house in 24 if we erase donald trump. but you have a conservative leader and you and i both know for sure that the republican leader fights with the conservative leader but not anymore because kevin mccarthy is the right leader for the right time and he will be the best speaker of the house. [applause] [crosstalk] >> i will tell you the truth -- it's great to be in florida where you guys are normal, you are open, i don't have to wear a mask anymore. that's so much better than california. did you -- when kevin mccarthy said it was the right thing for donald trump to be at cpac.

we are getting closer. the other thing we were just talking about backstage -- we talked about this with ambassador lighthizer and -- it's escaping me -- the new senator from tennessee. bill hagerty. a great man. there's a lot going on. what we were talking about is this new coalition focused on the working men and women, the forgotten men and women. we are focused on workers. there is a new poll that came out and it literally says the republican party grew because it was forgotten men and women that donald trump listened to the voices no one else listen to and we are never going to forget that. look what happened this morning at 2 a.m. -- nancy pelosi put a

2 trillion dollar bill in. there was a vote on the floor, she put a tunnel in silicon valley that has nothing to do with covid into the bill. we wanted to take that money and give it to the kids to put them back in school. it is an easy discussion. we want people back to work, back to school, back to health. pelosi wants more tunnels and the democrats voted for it. who is standing for the american public and who is standing for corporations? it's the republican party today and it's what we are going to be tomorrow in the future and it's why america is going to be stronger because we will put america first. [applause] >> donald trump taught us many things. more than anything else, he made the republican party the party of the working class for the first time since reagan.

the democrat party is the party of multinational corporations, wall street and they are the pro-china party, putting american workers last for the interest of our greatest adversary and wall street interests, the head of the interests of working class men and women in this country. my dad is a retired factory worker. he made axles all his life. he identified as a democrat most of his life. he did not like the republican leaders until donald trump. we have to keep voters like my dad in the fray. under kevin mccarthy's leadership in my leadership we will continue to be the party of the working class for a long time to come. [applause] >> i don't care if you are conservative, liberal or what else, i do not know what the chinese party and government has on the democrats, but it is so powerful. it is so powerful it is scary. they put eric swalwell on the

intel committee. i've been in a briefing just myself and nancy pelosi -- anyone who was at that briefing would not have him at that committee and would question even keeping him in congress. what is the first thing joe biden does? he calls the chinese and placates to them. he said now what they do on human rights, it's a cultural thing. he won't stand up what they are doing in the universities. china wins that election if biden gets in. that's the problem what happens and i don't know what they have on the democratic party, but is powerful and we need people like jim banks who is part of the china task force that has a plan to stand up so the next century is the american century. so let's get to this question of these radical policies hitting the house floor and set up for. i'm sure it is shocking to all

of you. we have all been numb since the election and you start seeing well the democrats be as radical in their policy proposals as they told us in we are always such nice people. we say come on, they are not going to be that way and then it starts coming. it's so radical on this most recent covid bill that you can't keep it together. do you see a chance that maybe queen pelosi is too tough? she keeps it together. if you can make the rhetorical points in the house, maybe a couple of senators are beginning to realize being a socialist is not so good at the ballot box. the only -- less than 9% of that bill had anything to do with covid. but what else is happening is when you put a bill out, you see the hr number, they reserved hr

one for the most important bill. you know what they have? it is to take over our entire election system. they change the rules in congress that have never been changed before to take away the right of the minority to even have an amendment because they are afraid of our ideas. jim banks is find -- is fighting this. you are the first one who came out against it. >> the republican party introduced a bill, the save democracy act. almost half the people today don't trust our elections after november and we have a moral duty as republicans to restore trust in our election system. hr one would do the opposite and that is what the democrats are going to ram through the house. >> i'm sure you would agree if i could give you one charge and leading cpac it would be doing all you can to any member we have any influence over to explain to them it's unacceptable that this unconstitutional power grab on

election so that what we saw this election would be what you will see on every single election. in order to fight it, we have to pick up more seats. let's end this conversation talking about politics. i stand corrected, it's not if we get majority, it is when we get the majority. [applause] tell us your blueprint forgetting that done. >> we are going to continue to do exactly what we did in the last election. we elected more republican women than the history of america before. [applause] we are going to continue to build and every other district. if you look at history, there are five seats to win the majority. next election, we have redistricting. we do a census and draw the lines. you know who loses seats? all these left running governors. california, illinois -- chino

who gains -- two seats in florida, three in texas. [applause] history says the party in power, whoever wins the white house on the first off year election loses 27 seats. in 2009, i was the deputy whip and recruitment chair. it was taking us 40 seats to win the majority and nobody believed we could. that election, we beat 63 democrats. let's not settle for 27, let's double that number. >> we should give a warm cpac welcome to those in the house of representatives fighting the socialist agenda. we appreciate what you are doing. thank you for being at cpac. thank you all very much. [applause] ♪