Emanuel Cleaver Slams Congressional Stock Trading Allowing Lawmakers ‘Enrich’ Themselves On The Job

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During remarks on the House floor prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) spoke in support of a ban on congressional stock trading.

Transcript

00:00to a man I admire very much, the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Cleaver, a co-sponsor of the Trust

00:07in Congress Act, for two minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Look, it's pretty clear to me,

00:16while it may not always come across your television, radio, or cell phone,

00:23I believe that the overwhelming majority of members of Congress are good and decent people.

00:31Whether we agree on everything is not factored in on what I just said. Unfortunately, as polls

00:41continue to indicate, the American people don't believe that that's the way it is. Congress right

00:49now is about as popular as a soiled baby's diaper. And we are pushing it down further by failing

01:01to hold ourselves accountable. It is absolutely ridiculous that members of Congress can sit

01:10in a committee hearing room or get some information by just moving around this city and then come

01:16in here and vote on something that would enrich them. I mean, this is wrong. And one of the

01:23reasons that you're not going to find anybody else coming in here taking an opposite position

01:27is because they are ashamed. And if they are ashamed, that means they know they are wrong.

01:34And if they know they are wrong, they ought to support this legislation. Or tell the public,

01:39I believe in enriching myself, and I'm not going to support it. Now, I represent a place that's

01:46sometimes referred to as Chief's Kingdom. I know some of you are probably offended because we win all the

01:56time. But in the recent years, we are accustomed to seeing Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, Chris Jones,

02:07lead one of the greatest teams in history. They've won three championships overall, two in the last three

02:16years. They can pass, they can run, they can kick, they can play defense, and they're not too shabby at their

02:25kicking game. But there's one thing they cannot do. One thing that they cannot do, even as a Super Bowl champ,

02:34they cannot bet on football. They cannot play football and then bet on who's going to win.

02:42They can, they're going to get kicked out of the league.

02:46That makes no sense. They could fall down, they could miss a pass on purpose. There are all kinds

02:53of things they can do that's wrong. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate very much the opportunity to be

03:03just a tiny voice in what's going on because this is right and not doing it is wrong. I yield back.

03:10Well, I thank the gentleman. You know, I come from New England where we also know something about

03:14winning all the time.

03:15But

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