Democrats are taking today’s Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank hearing seriously. So seriously that they circulated an emoji-filled document of suggested tweets that they would like for committee members to post.
The saddest part is that one of those committee members then repeated those talking points almost word-for-word at the hearing.
“Democrats 👏 the decisive action taken by the Biden administration in a critical moment to restore confidence in our banking system,” the Financial Service Committee Democrats circulated in a memo obtained by The Spectator this morning.
Throughout the document, the committee pushed for Democrats to praise Signature Bank board member Barney Frank, who happens to be a former Democratic congressman, for his work regulating the banking industry (work that he moved to undo as soon as he joined Signature). The committee also suggested attacking “MAGA Republicans” for using “the same racist playbook they used during the 2008 financial crisis.”
In another tweet suggestion, the committee Democrats wrote that “The U.S. banking system is 💪 Thanks to Dodd-Frank and the immediate action taken by the Biden Administration + state and federal regulators, Americans can have trust in their banking system. Now, it’s time to get to the bottom of the recent bank failures. Join @FSCDems now!”
The FSC Republicans didn’t seem taken with the Democrats’ rhetoric. “Once again, Democrats can only use a gratuitous ‘dog whistle’ to drive fear and division” with these talking points, Michigan congressman Bill Huizenga told The Spectator. He also said the document contained “no original thought.”
During today’s hearing, Representative Maxine Waters, the committee’s ranking Democrat, regurgitated these talking points almost verbatim, saying she wants to “address the extreme MAGA Republican narrative.” She said “Silicon Valley Bank collapsed because of management failures and possible regulatory weaknesses, not because there was one black man on the board.”
Huizenga pointed out that Waters was quoting “exactly” from these talkers, “despite no one knowing what she was talking about.” The committee’s verbiage is almost exactly what Walters said. “Let’s be clear, Silicon Valley Bank did not fail because there was one black man on the board, and Democrats will not stand for these racist lies,” her committee’s document said.
