{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.banks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/icymi-sen-banks-joins-the-big-weekend-show-on-fox-news-channel-2/", "ICYMI: Sen. Banks Joins\u00a0The Big Weekend Show on Fox News Channel", "2026-08-17", "2026", "2026-08", "Republican", "Senate", "IN", "Jim Banks", "B001299", "www.banks.senate.gov", "banks", "https://www.banks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Last night, Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.) joined The Big Weekend Show on Fox News Channel to discuss the conflict in Iran, updates on the U.S. Military, supplemental defense funding, the ongoing investigation into Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the federal response to recent severe weather in Indiana.\n\nClick the image above for the full discussion.\n\nKey Excerpts on Iran:\n\nSen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.): \u201cFirst and foremost, President Trump is the only President in 47 years who has had the guts to take on the regime in Iran and let them know they are not going to get away with it; they cannot have a nuclear weapon. What President Trump, our military, the brave men and women who wear the uniform, to keep us safe and secure here at home; what they have done to decimate Iran\u2019s industrial base, wiping out 85 percent of their ballistic missiles, and their nuclear program has set Iran back decades or generations. We can all be very happy about that because none of us want Iran to have a nuclear weapon that they would point right at us. We don\u2019t want to live in a world where Iran has a nuclear weapon, and President Trump deserves enormous credit for what he has done to prevent them from ever having one.\u201d\n\nKey Excerpts on the U.S. Military:\n\n\u201cI hung up my United States Naval uniform, and now I serve in the United States Senate, and here\u2019s one thing I can tell you: those brave sailors on the USS Lincoln, those sailors that are on every ship in the United States Navy, they are damn proud to wear the uniform and serve the greatest country in the history of the world. These sailors are serving our country; they\u2019re wearing the uniform, and they\u2019re proud to do it.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s a big point here too: our service members love President Trump, they know President Trump has their back, and at the same time it\u2019s the Democrats in Congress who are blocking the annual defense bill. A bill that has always been bipartisan. It\u2019s got pay raises for our troops, better equipment, better resources, better funding for the military, and it\u2019s the Democrats are the ones who are blocking it in the United States Senate and preventing us from passing a defense bill to support our troops\u2026They are using our troops as leverage. They are politicizing our military; it\u2019s shameful. We should be doing everything we can to support our troops. The defense spending supplemental isn\u2019t President Trump asking; it\u2019s all of the branches of the military. They are asking for more funding to support our troops and support the mission to keep America safe. \u201d\n\nKey Excerpts on Dr. Anthony Fauci:\n\n\u201cWe knew all along he lied to the American people, but the more these text messages and voicemails confirm that Dr. Fauci knew of the health concerns with pregnant mothers and covered up other risks with the vaccines, he should be held accountable in a big way. No one should ever be able to get away with what Dr. Fauci got away with, and if you don\u2019t hold him accountable, it allows for the next guy to do the same, and we can\u2019t let that happen.\u201d\n\nKey Excerpts on Indiana Severe Weather:\n\n\u201cThank you for bringing it up. It\u2019s devastating; 53 counties in our state have been impacted in a big way. We have rivers overflowing throughout the state, and the flooding is terrible. Thousands of families have been affected, millions of Hoosiers without power.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe President called me yesterday; we talked about the flood damage, and he signed the Declaration of Emergency for our state and committed to send millions of dollars here to help rebuild Indiana. We appreciate President Trump\u2019s leadership and all that he has done to support Indiana over the years, but it\u2019s going to be a long road to recovery for the Hoosier state. One thing I\u2019ve seen traveling the state this week is how resilient Hoosiers are; we come together, we help each other, we rebuild in times like these.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-08-18T05:27:41Z", "2026-08-18T05:29:06Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.banks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/icymi-sen-banks-joins-the-big-weekend-show-on-fox-news-channel-2/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.980622997507453, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}