Nancy Pelosi Comes Out In Support of Stock Trading Ban After Trump Says He Doesn’t Really Know About It
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) offered her full support for Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) stock trading ban on Wednesday, the same day President Donald Trump was non-committal on the bill, saying he’d need to study it. Hawley’s bill, notably, would ban the president and vice president from trading stocks, as well as members of Congress.
“We must have strong transparency, robust accountability and tough enforcement for financial conduct in office because the American people deserve confidence that their elected leaders are serving the public interest — not their personal portfolios,” Pelosi said in a statement supporting Hawley’s HONEST Act. Hawley’s original version of the bill was called the “PELOSI Act” – a not-too-subtle swipe at the California Democrat who has long been derided for making money from stocks while in office.
“If legislation is advanced to help restore trust in government and ensure that those in power are held to the highest ethical standards, then I am proud to support it — no matter what they decide to name it,” Pelosi’s statement added, concluding:
While I appreciate the creativity of my Republican colleagues in drafting legislative acronyms, I welcome any serious effort to raise ethical standards in public service. The HONEST Act, as amended, rightly applies its stock trading ban not only to Members of Congress, but now to the President and Vice President as well. I strongly support this legislation and look forward to voting for it on the Floor of the House.
Trump, meanwhile, was asked about Hawley’s bill during a White House presser and said, “Well, I like it conceptually. I don’t know about it, but I like it conceptually. And you know, Nancy Pelosi became rich by having inside information. She made a fortune with her husband. And I think that’s disgraceful. So in that sense, I’d like it.”
“But I’d have to really see the idea. You know, I studied these things very carefully, and this just happened. So I’ll take a look at it. But conceptually, I liked it. And what I do think is Nancy Pelosi should be investigated because she has the highest return of anybody practically in the history of Wall Street, save a few. And how did that happen? It happened because she knows exactly what’s going to happen, what’s gonna be announced. She buys stock and then the stock goes up after the announcement’s made. And she has to be investigated,” Trump concluded.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) went on the record Wednesday, publicly opposing the bill, saying, “I don’t know when in this country it became a negative to make money.” Scott is one of the wealthiest members of the U.S. Senate.
