Pelosi Defends Congressional Stock Trading As Lawmakers Cash In On COVID Treatments

On Wednesday, Nancy Pelosi said that lawmakers should be allowed to own and trade stock because of the "free market," a claim that didn't convince anyone that it was a smart decision. At the same time Pelosi was defending these actions, a new report came out from Business Insider showing that at least 75 lawmakers (from both parties) held stock in the companies that are profiting the most off the pandemic - everything from vaccine manufacturers to test makers and healthcare companies. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains why Pelosi couldn't be more wrong with her proclamation.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Yesterday, Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives told reporters that she does absolutely not support in anyway banning stock ownership or stock trading for members of Congress. She told those people, it's a free market economy and they're allowed to participate in the free market economy. So Nancy Pelosi is effectively, you know, depending on your interpretation of it really, I guess, defending the insider trading that is becoming rampant in the halls of Congress with both Republicans and Democrats. Okay. This is not a one party kind of thing. Both parties are doing it. Both parties staffers are doing it. Got a video coming up about that over the weekend. Make sure you check it out. But anyway, they're doing this. The left is, the right is, the lawmakers are, the staffers are. And as Nancy Pelosi was out there defending these individuals trading stocks and getting rich off of their own legislation effectively.

A new report came out from Business Insider that says, 75 lawmakers bought and sold stock in companies that make COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests over the last two years. So as Nancy Pelosi is saying, hey, we're allowed to do this. It's okay. Everything's great and wonderful. Business Insider has this report saying, hi, they're profiting off the pandemic. They're the ones who are passing the laws and, you know, getting the, the tests out to people and providing the COVID money to cities and states so they can give people vaccines. And they're actually profiting off these same things that Nancy Pelosi is up there right now literally defending. 49 lawmakers this year alone have been caught violating the stock act. Trading stocks, not disclosing it, trading stocks based on legislation that they have pending in front of them, 49 lawmakers just this year have caught, been caught violating that act and none of them have faced any penalty at all. There is no consequence for this.

There is nothing. Congress cannot own stock. I know they can. Congress should not own stock. I'm not even saying they shouldn't trade it. I'm saying they shouldn't own it at all and I've been saying that for months. And when I first started saying that it was a bit of a controversial take, right? Oh my God, Farron says nobody can own stocks in Congress. Yeah. Now that's actually the talking point. Everybody has gotten onboard with that because at the time people said, well, they shouldn't be able to trade stocks. Nope. Everybody's come around now. These individuals should not be allowed to own stocks. Serving in Congress is a public service and if that's not enough for you, then you need to go find another job. If you wanna trade stocks all day long, there's a whole industry of that up North. You can go participate in that and do that as your full-time job, make a ton of money and do whatever the hell you want except make laws.

You wanna make laws, you leave all that behind. You give it up and you say, I am going to be a public servant and I'm gonna do the job that I was hired to do and I'm not gonna try to get rich on the side. Those are your options. You can't have it both ways, Nancy. You gotta pick one or the other. You've got enough money.