Former GOP strategist rips 'obviously racist' MAGA responses to SVB collapse

Wall Street has been in a state of high anxiety thanks to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). President Joe Biden, on Sunday, March 12, responded to the crisis by assuring SVB depositors that their funds would be fully available the next morning. And sure enough, they were.

The SVB debacle has been followed by a wide range of commentary. Some of the more serious and thoughtful analysis came from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) in a New York Times op-ed and economist Joseph Stiglitz in an op-ed for The Guardian; both of them blamed SVB's downfall, in part, on inadequate government regulation of the banking sector.

Some MAGA Republicans, however, view SVB's collapse as a culture war issue and blamed "wokeness" for the crisis. Never Trump conservative and former GOP strategist Tim Miller calls them out in a humorous but scathing video posted by The Bulwark on March 17, stressing that "wokeness" had nothing to do with SVB's problems.

READ MORE:How 'new technologies' and 'inadequate regulation' hastened SVB’s 'predictable' collapse: economist

"Between the 2018 deregulation under (then-President Donald) Trump, (President Joe) Biden juicing the economy too hard with stimulus, and screwups by the CEO," Miller agues, "there’s a lot of blame to go around…. But I'm sorry to all the MAGA Republicans: There's one thing that didn't get us here no matter how much you wish it did: 'wokeness.'"

The Never Trumper makes his point by including, in his video, a clip of far-right Fox News pundit Jesse Watters saying, "Silicon Valley Bank is a woke Biden bank. They were holding seminars on Lesbian Visibility Day and National Pride Month."

"I call this obsession with blaming everything on woke the Anti-Woke Mind Virus," Miller comments. "These people are so obsessed with fighting diversity programs that they've become delusional one-trick ponies. I mean, it makes no sense. Straight white dudes have overseen every corporate f***-up in history…. It'd be easier to ignore this if it were just random stupid TV talking heads, but this obviously racist nonsense is being pushed by Republican political leaders."

Miller continues, "(Florida Gov.) Ron DeSantis said diversity and inclusion distracted the bank from its objective. The Wall Street Journal made the racist dog whistle much more explicit: SVB has 45 percent women, they also have '1 Black,' '1 LGBTQ+' and 2 veterans. 'I'm not saying 12 white men would have avoided this mess, but the company may have been distracted by diversity demands'…. One Black? This is a majority straight-white-male board, a straight white male CEO, and you all wanna blame this on the one Black and one queer on the board? And the GOP's leading contender to be a Trump replacement is on board with this? F**k you."

READ MORE: Elizabeth Warren: SVB's collapse underscores the need for 'stringent' banking 'oversight'

Watch the video below or at this link:

The Wokes Didn’t Crash SVB, Morons | Not My Party with Tim Millerwww.youtube.com