AOC: Stock Trading By Members Of Congress 'Must Be Banned', Accuses Trump Of Market Manipulation

Forbes Breaking News

At a "Fight Oligarchy Tour' event in Salt Lake City, Utah on Sunday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) spoke about members of Congress trading stocks amid President Trump's pause on tariffs.

Transcript

00:00And when I got to Congress, I was genuinely shocked by how the place worked.

00:12Even having run against dark money in the first place.

00:16The everyday influence of corruption was astonishing.

00:21We have somehow conditioned ourselves to believe that it is normal for members of Congress

00:29who swore an oath to the people to somehow day trade individual stocks

00:35and make millions with the sensitive information we are entrusted with to serve.

00:42How, I ask you, can anyone possibly make an objective vote on health care, energy, or war

00:50when their personal money is tied up in pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, or defense company stocks?

00:58You can't.

01:01And we saw this play out this week with Trump's corrupt and disastrous tariff scheme.

01:08And I hope that we can see now that Trump's tariff scheme didn't have anything to do with manufacturing like they claimed.

01:17It was all about manipulating the markets so he could quietly enrich his friends who bought the dip before reversing it all in the morning.

01:27All while our seniors and retirees suffered.

01:32Salt Lake City, this is a matter of fact.

01:36Donald Trump is a criminal.

01:41He was found guilty of 34 felony counts of fraud.

01:47Of course he is lying and manipulating the stock market too.

01:51He makes himself rich.

01:53The billionaires who back him rich.

01:55And the members of Congress who collude with him rich.

01:58But not you or us or any working person in this country.

02:02And to be clear, I don't care what party you are.

02:07Democrat or Republican.

02:08It doesn't matter how powerful or what position you have.

02:12Members of Congress holding and trading individual stock is wrong.

02:17It is corrosive.

02:18It is destructive.

02:19And it must be banned.

02:24And you can run the tape.

02:27Because I have always held this position, whether it was Democrats or Republicans in charge.

02:34And I'll give you another example of something that's shocking when I got to Congress.

02:40Just this year, I was named to the Energy and Commerce Committee.

02:45This is one of the most powerful committees in all of Congress.

02:51And for years, lobbyists fought to keep me off it.

02:55In no small part because I believe in Medicare for all.

03:00And because lobbyists don't like what they don't control.

03:06And an interesting thing happened the day that it was announced that I was put on that committee.

03:14Our phones and the phones in my office rang off the hook.

03:19Our inboxes exploded with emails from virtually every corporate lobbyist under the sun.

03:28All of a sudden, they wanted to be friends.

03:32They wanted to be friends.

03:33But you know what, Salt Lake City?

03:35Because of you all.

03:37Because of your support.

03:39Because you all show up.

03:41Because you allow me to not take a dime in corporate money.

03:46You free me to say no.

03:48And we can free others to say no too.

03:53I've seen how these groups bully members of Congress.

03:58They threaten to take money away or threaten to spend it against them if they don't do what they want.

04:03And what they want is for our lives to be as expensive as possible on the lowest possible wage.

04:10And it trickles down to how life feels for working people today.

04:15And let Danny Walters go in and share with you the amazing people today.

04:29Thank you very much.

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