Republicans Attack Their Wall Street Allies And Accuse Them Of Going 'Woke'

Republicans have now turned against their longtime allies on Wall Street, accusing brokers of somehow going "woke." The complaints from Republicans are that major institutions are dumping their investments in fossil fuels - something that activists have called for for a long time - but it isn't even happening the way Republicans think. This is just more panic and outrage over nothing from the Republican Party, as Farron Cousins explains.

Don't forget to like, comment, and share! And subscribe to stay connected!

Connect with Farron on Twitter

*This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos.

Republicans and bankers go together like peanut butter and jelly, you know, like peas and carrots to borrow a phrase from forest gum. But lately that relationship is apparently soured banks. According to Republicans have gone woke, oh yeah, those radical leftist environmentalists they're telling us have infiltrated these banks and forced them to go along with their radical ideas. And those radical ideas of course, are for the banks, the big banks, you know, the ones with all the money to stop investing in fossil fuel projects. I, and believe it or not, this is actually a global initiative. Okay. It's not just a couple of environmentalists out there telling the banks, Hey, quit doing this. No, it's a global initiative started by the banks to divest from fossil fuels and it's Republicans off something fierce. They are now state by state, Texas, Kentucky, and all other red states out there working on legislation that will actually penalize and blacklist these banks.

If they divest from fossil fuels, as of course, they have pledged to do. And I, I, I put pledged in the air quotes there. Not because I'm being cutesy, but because sure plenty of them have signed onto these pledges to get their personal financial holdings. The bank's financial holdings out of the fossil fuel industry because they're killing the planet. However, according to a new report called banking on climate chaos, 60 private sector banks invested 742 billion in coal oil and gas companies. Even after signing onto this net zero pledge. And we're not talking about your little local community bank folks, we're talking about JP Morgan, chase city group, Wells Fargo, bank of America. You know, the usual suspects out there, the big banks, the one that's run, the ones that run commercials on TV.

These banks said, we're not gonna do this anymore. And then oopsies, we put almost a trillion dollars back into fossil fuel holdings. Oops. And what's funny is that Republicans are totally ignoring that like these banks have not pulled their money out of these fossil fuel companies. They're still putting more and more into it, but Republicans are so off at even the thought that it could happen, that they're out there passing this legislation, telling these banks, if you do this, you are not gonna get any business from our state. That is what the legislation that they're proposing says. And again, this is happening state by state it's happened in Texas, currently happening in Kentucky. Other red states with, you know, big fossil fuel production. They're saying the same thing. The question I have is why does a fossil fuel company even need these investments? They're literally making tens of billions of dollars in profits, a piece basically each year. You don't need to invest in them. They've got more money than they could ever know what to do with hell. They're getting 14 billion a year in direct cash subsidies from the federal government itself, not to mention tax breaks and tax cuts. They don't need your banking money, but they get it anyway. And Republicans will sure do whatever they think is necessary to make sure that the money never dries up for the fossil fuel industry, even as they continue killing the planet. And we are the ones who suffer the consequences.