Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears intent on using the vast resources of his department to attack left-wing political groups as if they were foreign terrorist organizations in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
Speaking on a Tuesday episode of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” the podcast started by the late right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, Bessent paid lip service to the Constitution, saying it was his goal to “ensure freedom of speech on both sides.”
He spent several minutes, however, discussing how he was attempting to replicate the work that the Treasury did after 9/11 to track down foreign terrorist networks — this time setting the department’s sights on the American left wing.
“I will tell you that after 9/11, Treasury became the driving force behind tracking down the networks of terrorist organizations, how they were financed, how could this have happened on U.S. soil with these international terrorist organizations,” Bessent said on the show. “Where did the money come from? Who were the ultimate funders? And that was on the international side.”
“I will tell you that Charlie’s death is like a domestic 9/11,” he said.
The terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Unlike the hunt for Osama bin Laden, law enforcement officials have already captured a suspect in the shooting death of Kirk, and did so relatively quickly. It is not clear that the suspect has ties to any organized left-wing groups of any sort.
Bessent then pointed to the pro-Palestinian protests that cropped up across the country as Israel relentlessly pummeled the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
“Many of these organizations have been financed by nonprofits, and it’s gonna stop. And we are going to, as they always say, follow the money,” he said.
He went on to exaggerate about the extent of the coordination seen at some rallies, marches and protests: “When you see these groups where all the signs match, they have hundreds of the same umbrellas that they’re using after they cause the mayhem, they have the same lasers that they’re using to blind our police force. How are they constructed? Because this takes a lot of money.”
President Donald Trump has also attempted to paint his opposition as crisis actors funded by shadowy groups that oppose him on principle versus a true grassroots movement. He has suggested, wihtout offering any proof, that many of the protesters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, for example, are not motivated by sincere concern for immigrants’ rights but are rather being paid to protest.
Bessent said his department has “started to compile lists” and “put together networks,” although he did not elaborate.
“We don’t know how much of the support is coming in from overseas. We don’t know how much is being supported by U.S. nonprofits … but this is mission-critical for us now,” he said.
“Just as after 9/11, Osama bin Laden, the ultimate culprit, was captured, we are operationalizing this here at Treasury, and we are going to track down who is responsible for this.”
Once again, a suspect is in custody and facing charges in Kirk’s death.