Ocasio-Cortez, other Democrats squeeze big banks on guns, immigration, climate

"Not everything has to be done through legislation explicitly," Ocasio-Cortez told POLITICO.

More than a decade after Wall Street's crash wrecked the global economy, House Democrats are threatening to stigmatize the nation's biggest banks again.

Progressive freshmen like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) are joining with veteran lawmakers to try to shame the lenders into taking a stand on some of the country’s most divisive issues: climate change, gun violence and immigration.

The lawmakers are leveraging seats on the powerful House Financial Services Committee and a huge following on social media to confront finance industry executives and discourage them from funding oil pipelines, firearms makers and private prison companies that operate immigration detention centers. Like-minded activist groups are helping amplify the message.

Ocasio-Cortez, who has nearly 3.8 million Twitter followers, received more than 30,000 retweets this week for three posts targeting JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo."There's more than one way to skin a cat, and not everything has to be done through legislation explicitly," Ocasio-Cortez told POLITICO. “We can also use the tools that we have here to pressure change in other ways as well."