Bank of America accused of discriminating against conservatives

Listen to this Bank of America is accused of D banking certain conservative customers because of their religious or political views. 15 Attorneys general writing a letter obtained by Fox News Digital that says in part, quote, your discriminatory behavior is a serious threat to free speech and religious freedom, is potentially illegal and is causing political and regulatory backlash. Indiana agent Chavrakita signed the letter. Joins me now with Steve Curtis, who is the founder of the Timothy 2 Project International. Thanks to the both of you for being here, Steve. That organization I just mentioned exists solely to train pastors who otherwise would not have access to becoming a pastor. Seems like a beautiful, innocuous organization that nobody should have a problem with. But walk us through what Bank of America did to your accounts. Sure. Thanks. Good morning, Todd. Well, you’re exactly right. That’s why we exist. And to to help these pastors be able to to tell people about the gospel of grace, the forgiveness of sin and everlasting life available to all who place faith in Christ. We think that’s an incredibly important task. But even for people who are plumbers or lawyers or missionaries like us, there are certain legitimate expectations you have. When you turn on a light switch, you expect the lights to come on because you paid the bill. And when you swipe a credit card or put a debit card in an ATM, you expect it to be processed because that’s the arrangement you have with the bank. And in late 2020, Bank of America told us they weren’t going to do that anymore. We received a letter and the letter said we had 21 days they were going to restrict the account and in 30 days it was going to be completely closed. We had people all over the world. I was in Asia, I’m in Thailand right now. We travel a lot and we need these cards in the field. And so it had the potential to be very disruptive for us. And they gave no reason other than to say that they have chosen that we we were engaged in the type of business that they had chosen not to service. And when I called and tried to get them to explain that to us, they they said there’s nothing else we can say. And I said, what if I go into a branch? They said, we’ll give you give them this number. And there’s still nothing that we can tell you. And so we, we don’t know anything. As to the why. AG Rakita, do you allege that B of A closed Steve’s accounts because they are engaged in religion? Well, I I appreciate what the pastor’s doing. I appreciate his work and his congregations work. Not knowing all the facts of the case, not being his attorney, I can’t say that. But this is a pattern. What the pastor is talking about is a pattern throughout a lot of corporate America and not just Bank of America. And it’s this idea that their own political views, they’re going to foist the rest of us or they’re simply cowards and can’t stand up to the the the socialist pressure that’s being put on them. Either way, it’s unacceptable when you offer a commodity quote on the King’s Hwy. which is the old, the root of the old English law. On this, you have to offer it to all the King’s subjects on the highway, right? You can’t just pick and choose. It’s also some of the basis of our discrimination laws. So what they’re doing here is, is very discriminatory and smacks of although free speech is just to the government, it’s the same kind of thing, especially with a company that’s big that can have so much control over so many people. It’s the reason also we have antitrust laws in this state or in this country and states so as to break down that monopolistic behavior. Now, we’re not necessarily alleging all that in in this letter, but I’m trying to just show your viewers how the roots of our laws account for this kind of behavior. And they don’t like it. The federal government admitted to going through people’s bank transactions by searching certain words like trump, MAGA, even bass Pro. This of course, under the Biden administration. AG Rakita quickly. How far beyond B of A and beyond just religion does this D banking go? Oh, it goes into gun sales, you know, so it attacks your Second Amendment. It’s part of this radical climate change agenda. So it’s all wrapped together in these, in these movements and these ideas that really at their core are just about controlling individual behavior. This is about your individual freedom. America is exceptional because of the rule of law and the individual freedoms we prescribe to and they are intentionally destroying that day by day. Well B of A released a statement saying religious beliefs are not a factor in any account closing decision. We are proud to provide banking services to nonprofit organizations affiliated with diverse faith communities throughout the United States. We will see how they ultimately respond to this letter and if this letter leads to any follow up in a court of law. AG Todd Rakita. Steve Curtis, thanks for your time and Steve, keep doing what you’re doing. We appreciate it.