Wall Street Banks Freeze Political Donations After Capitol Hill Riots, Threaten Pro-Trump Politicians with Blacklisting
Wall Street is slamming the lid shut on the coffers of its corporate political action committees and threatening pro-Trump politicians on Capitol Hill with blacklisting.
Following a week in which major social media companies cut of President Donald Trump and began excluding some of his biggest advocates in the wake of the Capitol Hill riot, some of the nation’s largest financial institutions have announced that they are halting donations to their political action committees and considering permanently cutting off politicians accused of attempting to “overturn” the 2020 election.
J.P. Morgan Chase, the nation’s biggest bank by assets and market capitalization, said it is halting donations through its PAC for six months. Citigroup, the third-largest U.S. bank by assets, is reportedly pressing pause on political donations for the first quarter of 2020.
Goldman Sachs put the kibosh on donations pending a review of “how people acted during this period,” according to the New York Times, with the likely result that it will exclude Republican politicians who challenged the 2020 election results. Morgan Stanley also said it is stopping political contributions. It is considering withdrawing support for any politicians who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s electoral college win.
Bank of American and Wells Fargo are still considering their response but are likely to follow the path chosen by their competitors.
Typically, bank contributions to political action committees and politicians are considered by the Americana public some of the worst intersections of money and politics. The current situation has given the banks a rare opportunity to pose as do-gooders, even while implicitly pressuring politicians to win back their favor by adopting pro-Wall Street stances.
Corporate America is also freezing donations. So far, Marriott, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Boston Scientific have said they will close their political purse strings.
The reaction to the Capitol Hill riot by supporters of President Trump stands in stark contrast to the response of banks and corporations to the Black Lives Matter anti-police riots and protests of last year. In response to those events, corporations pledged over a billion in support of Black Lives Matter and related causes.
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