Florida Rep. Greg Steube on Sunday called attention to the Biden administration’s targeting of conservative groups through “debanking” — something the condescending writers at “Saturday Night Live” mocked in their ignorance of President Joe Biden’s handball politics.
In an email to constituents on Sunday, Steube, a Sarasota Republican, called attention to a hearing last week by the House “weaponization” subcommittee that probes the feds’ woke behavior targeting conservative groups.
During that hearing, Steube called it “absolutely insane” to hear conservative witnesses discuss how the Deep State targeted groups that are pro-life, pro-gun, and supportive of other right-wing causes.
Read: Florida Rep. Greg Steube Joins Chorus Of Lawmakers Pushing To Ditch ‘Clock Change Madness’
Steube noted how the Treasury Department did an end run around the Fourth Amendment by telling financial institutions to spy on conservatives’ bank records to monitor their purchases for firearms.
The congressman also called attention to a report that the Treasury Department distributed in 2021 entitled “Bankrolling Bigotry,” which was compiled by a pair of London-based left wing think tanks, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and the Global Disinformation Index.
As The Washington Times reported on Friday, the report identified as “hate groups” such as mainstream conservative groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, Family Research Council, Liberty Counsel, Pacific Justice Institute, and Federation for American Immigration Reform.
As the Times reported, the committee noted that the Treasury Department sent the document to the world’s largest financial institutions “without regard for the chilling effect it would have on protected speech and its potential to be weaponized against the groups by financial institutions.”
Read: Florida Rep. Greg Steube Praises SCOTUS After Trump Ballot Decision “Big Win For Our Country”
The list created by those left-wing groups also “draws a false equivalency between certain conservative civil society groups and the American Nazi Party and the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.”
At the hearing, and under questioning from Steube, Jeremy Tedesco, senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom gave several examples of major banks debanking groups they didn’t like at the behest of left-wing political causes or the Biden administration. In one case he cited, that included a group created by former Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback.
Tedesco told the committee that those who were debanked would likely never know the government snooped into their records until they were cut loose by their bank and given a vague and almost unchallengeable reason, such as being considered high risk.
Read: Florida Rep. Steube Announces Veteran History Project Interview Featuring Veteran Dan O’Leary
The Republicans on the weaponization committee noted that the Biden administration essentially told banks that “Americans who expressed opposition to firearm regulations, open borders, COVID-19 lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and the ‘deep state’ may be potential domestic terrorists.”
Help support the Tampa Free Press by making any small donation by clicking here.
Android Users, Click To Download The Tampa Free Press App And Never Miss A Story. Follow Us On Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our free newsletter.