Subverting the expectations of some of his critics and going back to how he used to do things, CNN’s Jake Tapper spent over eight minutes on Thursday’s edition of The Lead going after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for her opposition to measures that would make Congress more ethical and crackdown on insider trading. He even brought on the former director of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub to take her to task.
Immediately after returning from a commercial break, Tapper announced it was time for a “conflict of interest watch.” He then likely made her fan base unhappy by warning that “Ethics experts” were “sounding the alarm today after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would not support a ban on members of Congress and their spouses from trading stocks while in office.”
Chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju joined him and noted the Business Insider investigation that found “found that 49 Members of Congress and 182 senior-level congressional staffers” were in direct violation of the 2012 STOCK Act that was passed in an attempt to keep insider trading from occurring.
“People aren't reporting, they should be. Because this is a free market and people – We are a free market economy they should be able to participate in that,” Pelosi sneered at journalists during her Wednesday press conference.
And when it was his turn to give his commentary and analysis, Shaub twice ripped up the Speaker’s pathetic argument:
Nancy Pelosi says it's a free market. In reality, it's not exactly a free market when she has inside access to information from government experts that isn't public that can affect and influence their trading activity that the public doesn't have access to. It's not exactly free when we're locked outside of the kind of information that members of Congress get all the time.
Shaub went further and rightly pointed out that “nobody kidnapped them and dragged them to Washington and said you must be in Congress and pointed a gun at their head. They are there by choice. They asked us to give them great power over our lives. They owe us great transparency and lack of conflict of interest.”
“And I would just add the mere appearance that they are engaging in insider trading is just as bad as if they actually are,” he said. “Because we have a crisis of confidence in government right now and the public can't just take their word for it.”
Tapper even seemed to take on those on the left who didn’t appreciate him and Shaub calling out the Democrats and the progressives for being corrupt, when they should be focusing on the Republicans threatening Democracy.
Shaub countered by pointing out that the existence of corruption, or at least the perception of it, was in itself a form of voter suppression. “You want to talk about voter suppression, look at the sheer number of Americans who don't vote. Some of them don't vote because we put obstacles in their way but others don’t vote because they've given up,” he said.
“How are you going to convince these people who aren't voting that they should participate and that it matters who is in Congress when you have members of Congress just willy-nilly trading stocks and creating the appearance of insider trading and actual conflicts of interest,” he rhetorically asked his critics.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s The Lead
December 16, 2021
5:15:49 p.m. EasternJAKE TAPPER: We're back with a conflict of interest watch. Ethics experts sounding the alarm today after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would not support a ban on members of Congress and their spouses from trading stocks while in office. Why would that be a problem you might ask? Well, because lawmakers are privy to all sorts of private briefings and secret intelligence that the public is not containing information that could decidedly affect the price of stocks once that information is learned.
Let's go live to CNN's Manu Raju on Capitol Hill.
Manu, this was all spurred by a report finding that some members of Congress are actually breaking the rules that were put in place to prevent such insider trading.
MANU RAJU: Yes, that's the 2012 STOCK Act that was actually aimed at stopping members of Congress from learning about things privately and then making those decisions to help them financially. But this investigation by Business Insider found that 49 Members of Congress and 182 senior-level congressional staffers have violated that law.
Now, that came amid questions about what is being done to fear the fact that these laws have been actually violated. But if this investigation show what is well known on Capitol Hill, the House Ethics Committee, Senate Ethics Committee has not done a whole lot to crack down on these violations; there are inconsistent standards going forward in trying to deal with some of these violations.
So, the question was posed to Pelosi yesterday at her press conference, why now ban members of Congress, their spouses from trading stock all together? And she pushed back.
[Cuts to video]
PELOSI: People aren't reporting, they should be. [Journalist shouting questions] Because this is a free market and people – We are a free market economy they should be able to participate in that.
[Cuts back to live]
RAJU: Now, the Speaker's office argues that sunlight is the best disinfectant. In other words, there should be more reporting so people can see exactly what these transactions entail.
And Jake, this has also become an issue in a number of key campaigns. Recall the Georgia Senate race which David Perdue, the Georgia Senator at the time, traded stock, got criticism over what appeared to be some insider trading heat, which he denied during the early months of the pandemic. But this investigation too, Jake, also found that 75 lawmakers held stocks and vaccines of Moderna, Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer in the early months of the pandemic.
TAPPER: Manu Raju on Capitol Hill, thanks so much.
Let's discuss this with Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics under both Presidents Obama and Trump.
Walter, you are comparing Pelosi's remarks to the infamous Marie Antoinette let them eat cake moment, why?
WALTER SHAUB, FORMER DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS: Sure. I mean, Nancy Pelosi says it's a free market. In reality, it's not exactly a free market when she has inside access to information from government experts that isn't public that can affect and influence their trading activity that the public doesn't have access to. It's not exactly free when we're locked outside of the kind of information that members of Congress get all the time.
(…)
SHAUB: And I would just add the mere appearance that they are engaging in insider trading is just as bad as if they actually are. Because we have a crisis of confidence in government right now and the public can't just take their word for it.
(…)
SHAUB: You also have to remember to the extent Nancy Pelosi says, oh, it is a free market. Why should they be deprived of the chance to participate in the market? Well, nobody kidnapped them and dragged them to Washington and said you must be in Congress and pointed a gun at their head. They are there by choice. They asked us to give them great power over our lives. They owe us great transparency and lack of conflict of interest.
(…)
SHAUB: Look how concerned so many people including I are about voter suppression. You want to talk about voter suppression, look at the sheer number of Americans who don't vote. Some of them don't vote because we put obstacles in their way but others don’t vote because they've given up.
So, it’s all connected because when Congress sends a message that ethics don't matter and leave concerns of corruption out there, how are you going to convince these people who aren't voting that they should participate and that it matters who is in Congress when you have members of Congress just willy-nilly trading stocks and creating the appearance of insider trading and actual conflicts of interest.
(…)
