John Kennedy irked as he demands answers about debanking conservatives

Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana demanded an explanation from a high-ranking Federal Reserve official about debanking conservatives during a Thursday hearing.

President Donald Trump chewed out Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan in January 2025 over the company's alleged "debanking" of conservatives for their political beliefs during a speech at the World Economic Forum. Kennedy asked Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman about why the agency allowed banks to close the accounts of conservatives and firearms manufacturers during the Senate Banking Committee's hearing on "rightsizing regulation."

"What in God's name was the Fed and some of your other agencies thinking when you allowed banks to debank customers for reputational risk? Are you kidding me? Why did you allow that to happen?" a visibly angry Kennedy asked Bowman. "Because you didn't like their politics or you didn't like the products they made."

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"I mean, do you think it would be fair — Senator Warren's not here, so I hesitate to talk about it — Senator Warren was a distinguished professor at Harvard University. Some people don't like Harvard. Some people don't like their politics," Kennedy continued. "How could you possibly allow a bank to have the option — I'm not saying they did it — but to debank someone like Senator Warren — I'm using her as a hypothetical example — because you didn't like her politics. And you can say the same thing about gun manufacturers and oil and gas and anybody you don't like, and you let the banks do it. What in God's name were you all thinking, Madam Vice Chair?"

First lady Melania Trump wrote in her memoir that she and her son Barron were debanked, but she did not name the institution that closed her accounts. Trump said in January he would sue J.P. Morgan Chase over the financial institution closing accounts after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol building.

"Senator, I appreciate your concerns and I share them. I was not the vice chair at the time those decisions were made," Bowman said, with Kennedy responding, "I know that. But your institution went along with it. The banks proposed it and your institution sucked it up like a Hoover Deluxe."

"In my view, debanking is never an appropriate activity," Bowman replied. "It is — every American in this country should have access to financial services and they should not be limited from access to those services based on their political, religious beliefs or their engagement in a particular business that may be disfavored but is legally — legally allowed."

The Obama administration launched "Operation Chokepoint," which used the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to pressure banks to deny companies in the firearms industry financial services. While the first Trump administration halted the practice, some financial institutions continued to pressure companies in the firearms industries to adopt certain practices or face the closure of their accounts for years afterwards.

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