Watch Hilarious Moment CEO Calls Out AOC After She Slams Him for Leak from Non-Existent Pipeline
The socialism-espousing Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who astonishingly sits on the powerful House Financial Services Committee that is inexplicably chaired by Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters, revealed to the nation once again that she has absolutely no business being a lawmaker in Congress.
That revelation came during a public hearing on Tuesday, when Ocasio-Cortez grilled Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan with absurdly loaded questions based on ridiculous hypothetical premises that were altogether simply jaw-dropping in terms of her incredibly arrogant ignorance.
For whatever bad things Wells Fargo may have done in the past — and that financial institution is certainly not innocent of any prior wrongdoing — the CEO deserves credit for somehow managing to keep a straight face and not burst out laughing at the spitefully rhetorical nonsense that was spewed in his direction.
You can watch the whole thing right here:
The congresswoman began by questioning Sloan about the “human rights abuses” and “environmental disasters” — not to mention other truly terrible things — his institution had supposedly financed with loans, specifically for-profit private prisons operated by two separate companies.
Wells Fargo is no longer involved with one of the companies. The bank is in the process of disassociating itself from the other.
After submitting for the record reports that alleged the involvement of Wells Fargo in financing Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities, Ocasio-Cortez, arms crossed and glaring, bluntly asked, “Mr. Sloan, why was the bank involved in the caging of children and financing the caging of children to begin with?”
Visibly stunned, Sloan replied, “Uh, I don’t know how to answer that question because we weren’t.”
The congresswoman reiterated her assertion that the bank was involved in the “caging of children” in ICE detention facilities, but nevertheless decided to move on … In doing so she only made things even worse for herself.
Ocasio-Cortez shifted gears to reference the Wells Fargo financing of the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and Dakota Access pipeline, and claimed that the financing had been in spite of serious environmental concerns about the projects. She then claimed there had already been major oil spills from those two pipelines.
According to The Daily Caller, and as Sloan quickly pointed out, the congresswoman’s “facts” were wrong.
The Keystone XL pipeline hasn’t even been built yet due to ongoing legal battles. And though there had been at least one major leak from the original Keystone pipeline — the Keystone XL is merely an extension — that spill had already been cleaned up.
Sloan told Ocasio-Cortez his bank was one of nearly 20 that helped finance the Dakota Access pipeline.
Undeterred, the congresswoman focused on the Dakota Access pipeline and sought to hold the bank responsible for the cost of alleged environmental damage that had been caused by leaks of “fossil fuel” projects like pipelines.
Sloan asked how such cost accountability could even be calculated, to which Ocasio-Cortez suggested “from spills, or when we have to reinvest in infrastructure building seawalls from the erosion of infrastructure, or the cleanup of wildfires, etc.”
Sloan replied that he was unaware of how any of those things she mentioned — erosion of seawalls on the coasts, or wildfires on the West Coast — could be connected to the oil pipeline in South Dakota.
“So, hypothetically, if there was a leak from the Dakota Access pipeline, why shouldn’t Wells Fargo pay for the clean up of it, since it paid for the construction of the pipeline itself,” Ocasio-Cortez asked.
Without missing a beat, Sloan replied, “Because we don’t operate the pipeline. We provide financing to the company that is operating the pipeline.”
Consider for a moment the full implications of the congresswoman’s question that sought to hold Wells Fargo accountable for leaks in oil pipelines the bank helped finance.
That is the equivalent of holding a car loan financier responsible for the damage done by a drunk driver, or a home mortgage lender responsible for the unrelated criminal or negligent actions of a homeowner …
In other words, idiotic lunacy, and not at all how things work.
As previously noted, this woman is way outside her depth and has no business being a member of Congress, much less hold a seat on the incredibly powerful and influential House Financial Services Committee.
She has revealed that fact once again with her moronically inappropriate, falsely premised, overtly biased and heavily loaded questions that were unquestionably designed to demonize the bank executive and portray his institution as being one of the worst businesses ever.
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