John Kennedy Visibly Irked As He Grills Witness Over Why Agency Allowed Debanking Of 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.”

WATCH:

“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?”