The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has created shockwaves across the country, but Sen. Kevin Cramer, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, said Sunday he believes the issue is largely localized to California and the tech industry.
“The problem is that we live in a very emotional time where markets are emotional,” the North Dakota Republican told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” adding that social media drives much of that emotion.
“I hope that with the weekend came some calm and certainly some strategy as well,” but there are so many unique things about Silicon Valley that aren’t necessarily applicable systemically,” Cramer said. “My hope is it’s very localized and we can address it in that way.”
In 2018, while in the House, Cramer was a co-sponsor of a repeal of Dodd-Frank, which loosened some regulations on smaller banks, show host Chuck Todd pointed out, but Cramer said smaller banks do not need more regulation, even with the collapse of SVB.
“That doesn’t mean that you can be mismanaged,” he said. “I don’t think smaller banks need more oversight and more regulation — maybe better oversight, but certainly not more regulation.”
But even with such volatility in the markets and economy, that doesn’t mean it’s time to step back from negotiating the nation’s debt ceiling, said Cramer.
“It’s not just about America’s, the government’s debt ceiling, but many individuals have hit their own debt ceiling,” he said. “Their savings accounts are being drained, so we have kind of a crisis, if you will, on our hands that requires lots of things…this is why I think it’s foolish for the president to simply say, ‘I’m not going to negotiate on the debt ceiling.’ This is the time to have a negotiation.”
Turning to politics, Cramer hasn’t ruled out an endorsement for former President Donald Trump in 2024, but he said Sunday that if Trump is indicted in any of the investigations that are underway, that will be a factor in whether he wins the GOP nomination.
“The other factor is who else is in the race and who can make the best case,” he said, adding that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “has certainly earned the right to be at the head of the class” in the primaries not because of his political rhetoric but because he’s a successful governor of a large state.
“The challenge becomes if there are too many people in the race,” said Cramer. “There are other good ones: Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo certainly, my friend Tim Scott [R-S.C.] would all be good candidates who understand the Trump doctrine but have a demeanor that’s probably more suitable to the, to the swing voter… there’s no glory in losing spectacularly compared to winning humbly. So I’d rather see a humble victory.”
Cramer also on Sunday discussed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision to give Fox News’ Tucker Carlson exclusive access to some 41,000 hours of Jan. 6 footage and said that he does not agree with contentions that the protests that day were entirely peaceful.
“A four-hour stroll through the Capitol that’s marred by a half hour of rioting doesn’t make it a peaceful protest, and nobody was supposed to be in the Capitol, so there’s not a single person who’s completely innocent of wrongdoing, but not everybody that day is at the same level of crime,” he said, adding that “518 have confessed to committing crimes that day and 420 have been prosecuted and sentenced, so clearly, it wasn’t a peaceful protest.”
Cramer said it does frustrate him that the topic is being discussed again, rather than lawmakers moving forward to more vital topics like the southern border or China.
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