Posted on 03/13/2019 6:01:00 AM PDT by Kaslin
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seemed to be hoping for a gotcha moment during questioning of Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan Tuesday during a House Financial Services Committee Hearing and instead ended up embarrassing herself.
Sloan was brought before the panel by Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) as part of an inquiry into fraudulent misconduct by the bank’s employees in recent years. But rather than focus on issues such as the creation of fake accounts, AOC took an odd twist and accused Sloan of “financing the caging of children” and questioned his responsibility for “damages incurred by climate change.”
First, her focus on ICE:
AOC: "Why was the bank involved in the caging of children?"
Wells Fargo CEO: "I don't know how to answer that question because we weren't."
AOC: "Ok, I'll move on." pic.twitter.com/tkOvXDn5U2— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) March 12, 2019
At the beginning of her remarks, Ocasio-Cortez told Sloan, "I'm interested in the human rights abuses and environmental disasters that some say are financed by your bank, Wells Fargo."
Ocasio-Cortez pointed to private prisons and for-profit immigration detention centers, asking Sloan, "Why was the bank involved in the caging of children and financing the caging of children to begin with?"
"I don't know how to answer that question because we weren't," Sloan replied. He said Wells Fargo was involved in financing one of the private prison companies "for a period of time," but "we're not anymore."
As for the other firm, Sloan said, "I'm not familiar with the specific assertion that you're making. But we weren't directly involved in that."
Ocasio-Cortez told Sloan, "So these companies run private detention facilities, run by ICE, which is involved in caging children. But I'll move on." (CNS)
And move on, she did, to fossil fuels.
AOC is so stupid that she actually thinks this exchange makes her look smart:
AOC: "If there was a leak from the pipeline, why shouldn't Wells Fargo pay for the cleanup of it, since it paid for the construction?"
Wells Fargo's CEO: "Because we don't operate the pipeline" https://t.co/fZ7IVwgxjQ— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) March 12, 2019
"So let's focus on the Dakota Access Pipeline. Should Wells Fargo be held responsible for the damages incurred by climate change due to the financing of fossil fuels and these projects?"
I don't know how you'd calculate that, Congresswoman," Sloan said.
"Say, from spills," she told Sloan, "or when we have to reinvest in infrastructure, building sea walls from the erosion of -- from the erosion of infrastructure, or cleanups, wildfires, et cetera?"
"Related to that pipeline?" Sloan asked. "I'm not aware that there's been any of what you described that has occurred."
“How about the cleanups from the leaks of the Dakota Access Pipeline?
"I'm not aware of the leaks associated with the Dakota Access Pipeline that you're describing," Sloan said.
"So hypothetically, if there was a leak from the Dakota Access Pipeline, why shouldn't Wells Fargo pay for the cleanup of it since it paid for the construction of the pipeline?" Ocasio-Cortez asked.
"Because we don't operate the pipeline," Sloan replied. "We provide financing to the company that's operating the pipeline. Our responsibility is to ensure that at the time we make that loan that that customer -- and we have a group of people in Wells Fargo, including an environmental oversight group headed by one of my colleagues who used to be at the EPA--"
Ocasio-Cortez interrupted him: "So, one question, why did Wells Fargo finance this pipeline when it was widely seen to be environmentally unstable?"
"Again, the reason that we were one of the 17 or 19 banks that financed that is because our team reviewed the environmental impact and we concluded that was a risk that we were willing to take," Sloan told Ocasio-Cortez. (CNS)
Watch below:
Rule of law vs @AOC. https://t.co/EiN1UTALD0— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) March 13, 2019
The left has been posing a lot of “is it true you’ve stopped beating your wife?” questions these days.
She is the perfect blend of smug and stupid. It’s such a potent mix that it almost has me wondering about what my mother taught me about striking a woman.
Ask her how many dinos it takes to make a gallon
She’s too stupid to be embarrassed...................
Heard excerpts on talk radio yesterday eve.
The bank president kindly, softly put the bimbo in her place.
She is profoundly stupid and is a gift to the Republicans.
(Or she would be, if Republicans had balls.)
Thankfully, the Trumpster will take her down regularly.
She's getting to be really good at this.
She is a bimbo, but she does not realize it yet. She is a snotty bimbo.
She is so virtuous.
Occasional-Cortex did it again.
This reminds me of the time a black Congresswoman, I forget who, was ‘grilling’ a bunch of bank CEOs back during the banking scandals and she went off on one of them, talking about mortgages and redlining and minority financing and all kinds of irrelevant stuff, ending with some snarky remark about his bank not making enough mortgage loans to minorities.
He looked around at the other CEOs in bewilderment, then said, “We’re a COMMERCIAL BANK madam representative. We don’t do mortgages.”.............................
What she did do, however, was terrorize the Wells Fargo CEO.
What was really scary about her questioning of the WFC CEO was that she tried to link responsibility for oil spills and pipeline construction clean-up to the lenders for such pipelines.
Whether the lenders are legally responsible or not, they can suffer a great cost if the Left shifts blame to the lenders (in the court of public opinion) such that retail customers and corporate borrowers avoid the bank because of bad environmental press.
Furthermore, this accusation by AOC causes oil pipeline lenders and lenders to similar endeavors to rethink the economics of lending to such environmentally risky projects.
This was a REALLY big deal.
She is all that and more, but it seems the Dems are now starting to make her the ‘useful idiot’.... she’ll get on camera and float trial balloons and make whacky connections between Point A and Point Z (that happened here) that may serve to provide basis later for some of their extreme agenda.
If nothing else, even a pull-back from where she’s at on the political spectrum could make the rest of the party look moderate by comparison: that’s my main fear.
Can you just ignore an “invitation” to testify to a congressional committee?
More police state than republic.
This was one of the many occasions when she had no cortex..................
She is somewhat typical of her age cohort.....zero respect for older, accomplished wiser people and zero deference. The brat should have her ass tanned.
She is so virtuous, she’s virtually stupid................
This woman is a complete dumpster fire.
“She is somewhat typical of her age cohort.....zero respect for older, accomplished wiser people and zero deference. The brat should have her ass tanned.”
I’m so glad I’m not in that age group, dating.
I used to laugh at the desperation that seemed to come with mail order brides. Now, it appears to be the only way to get a bride that won’t treat you like a praying mantis.
I saw hatred in her questioning. She is dangerous.
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