Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that it is “disgusting” that former President Joe Biden “weaponized” the financial system to “debank” conservatives.
Scott spoke to Breitbart News right before he announced witnesses for the February 5 committee examining the real life impacts of debanking in America.
The hearing will feature three witnesses, including Nathan McCauley, the CEO and cofounder of Anchorage Digital; Evan Hafer, the founder and executive chairman of Black Rifle Coffee Company; and Stephen Gannon, a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.
Conservatives, venture capitalists, and cryptocurrency companies have long complained about “debanking,” or losing access to one’s banking services due to the person or group’s commercial activity or political affiliation.
President Donald Trump recently brought this into the limelight at the World Economic Forum when he told Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase to platform conservatives.
Scott blamed the Biden administration for forcing banks to stop providing their services to conservatives.
“It is disgusting to watch the number of industries and individuals de bank, because Biden weaponized, not just the Department of Justice, Obama weaponized just, not just the department of the IRS, but we’ve seen the weaponization of our financial markets that is disgusting,” the South Carolina senator said. “It is not just wrong. It is immoral, unethical. I believe it might be illegal.”
“We’re gonna bring all that back up to the table, because it’s not just digital assets [crypto], Black Rifle Coffee, it is actually oil and gas legal industries in America being shunned and thrown shade at them because they’re not on the right side of the political spectrum,” he added.
Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen noted that Trump’ wife and son were debanked, sharing a quote from Melania Trump’s book, Melania:
Breitbart News has reported about how the Biden administration has pushed to debank many industries in a similar fashion to the Obama administration:
This practice of debanking first became commonplace during President Barack Obama’s time in office through Operation Choke Point, which discouraged banks from doing business with gun sellers and payday lenders.
The Biden administration similarly warned financial institutions about the alleged risks of working with the crypto industry.
According to supervisory letters obtained by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase via Freedom of Information Act requests, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) pressured banks to debank crypto companies.
The Blockchain Association, a crypto trade group, said it has identified more than 30 instances of debanking in the crypto industry.
In his executive order last Thursday calling for American leadership in digital financial technology, Trump called for “protecting and promoting fair and open access to banking services for all law-abiding individual citizens and private-sector entities alike.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
Read the full article here
