January saw an explosive revelation of the Biden Administration ordering banks to track purchases of firearms, religious texts, and Donald Trump paraphernalia as potential "domestic extremists" through the FBI. In a recent appearance on Fox Business's Bottom Line, Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) called to "defund those positions," and the incident demonstrated why "we need new leadership in the White House."
The House Judiciary Committee detailed how after January 6th, 2021, the Treasury's FinCEN Office, which deals in financial crime, told banks to survey purchases that contained Merchant Category Codes such as Dick's Sporting Goods, Cabela's, Bass Pro Shops, and media subscriptions or books that supposedly contained "extremist views."
Hosts Dagen McDowell and Sean Duffy asked how House Republicans could stop such egregious abuses of power, which Rep. Luna said began with "getting the facts out there."
"The weaponization really did America a solid by collecting all of this information, and we are finding that the banks are really involved in this. So you saw that Bank of America was actually handing over all of this personal information to other users without their consent to the FBI. So I think the next thing we should do as legislators is defund those positions," Rep. Luna continued, mentioning her opposition to building a new FBI headquarters, which was part of a bill introduced by Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL), which was killed in November.
Nevertheless, Rep. Luna said she was "looking forward to November" because it would signal a changing of the guard, and this would necessarily be "top-down if we really want to stop this."
After all, "The American people are very frustrated. I, myself, am frustrated because it seems like there is nothing from an accountability perspective and standpoint that we can currently do right now because we do not have the White House," Luna continued.
At the same time, control of the House of Representatives by a single seat has allowed Republicans to curb some of the Biden Administration's agenda, which the Florida Congresswoman called "a godsend."
