Appearing on “Hannity” to discuss his recently introduced bill to prohibit members of Congress from trading individual stocks, the “PELOSI Act,” Sen. Josh Hawley sounded off on Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s alleged stock trading when asked about his bill by host Sean Hannity.
Hannity, introducing the topic, said “My next guest is vowing to put an end to insider trading, public corruption in the swamp, in Washington, D.C., with a bill that he calls the PELOSI Act. Here with more, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley is with us. Senator, tell us about this bill.”
Hawley began his response by discussing what exactly the bill will do and how it will stop members of Congress from making money off trading stocks on which they have insider knowledge, saying:
“Well, listen, Sean, you’ve laid it out perfectly, which is that when people sent, when a voter sent members of Congress to Washington, they expect them to do the people’s business, not to be day trading on the stock market, not to be using the information that they get from briefings to go and make a quick buck on Wall Street. So here’s what my bill does: It says no more trading of stocks by members of Congress.
“In fact, no more ownership of stocks by members of Congress. If you want to save, fine, put it in a mutual fund like most Americans do. But Nancy Pelosi is the perfect example of what should not be happening in D.C., which is people getting rich out in the stock market, off of information they know because they’re a member of Congress.”
Hannity then interjected, asking “And Pelosi, what, traded between $1 million and $5 million in stocks for semiconductors only days before Congress allocated $52 million to the industry? Am I right on that, Senator?”
Responding, Hawley noted that Pelosi does appear to have done that and then noted that, though a perfect example of how members of Congress make millions of trading stocks on which they have insider knowledge, Pelosi is far from the only member of Congress who does so. Speaking on that, Hawley said:
“That’s the report, Sean, and there’s lots of reports like that with her, with her family and other members of Congress.
“I mean, this is a problem that has been going on for years, and she is just a perfect example of how rich people can get by using their information.
“Listen, insider trading is already illegal, and we’re talking here about members of Congress, the briefings that they get, the information that we have from he. It’s, it’s information that most Americans don’t have because, of course, that’s why they send us to Congress is to do their business, not to turn that around and to get rich off of it. That’s why I call it the PELOSI Act. We need to act right now.”
By: Will Tanner. Follow me on Twitter @Will_Tanner_1