President Donald Trump railed against Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley on Wednesday afternoon following Hawley’s decision to join Democrats in tanking a measure that would have commissioned a government report on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s stock trading history.
Hawley voted against a measure sponsored by Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott to request a government report on the stock trading history of the former speaker and her husband Paul Pelosi over the last 25 years during debate over a proposed stock trading ban Wednesday morning. Trump excoriated the Missouri Republican’s opposition to adding the Pelosi report as an amendment to the legislation and for working with Senate Democrats to pass a congressional trading ban that curtails the president’s authority to trade and own stocks.
“Why would one ‘Republican,’ Senator Josh Hawley from the Great State of Missouri, join with all of the Democrats to block a Review, sponsored by Senator Rick Scott, and with the support of almost all other Republicans, of Nancy Pelosi’s Stock Trading over the last 25 years,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post. “The Democrats, because of our tremendous ACHIEVEMENTS and SUCCESS, have been trying to ‘Target’ me for a long period of time, and they’re using Josh Hawley, who I got elected TWICE, as a pawn to help them.”
Trump’s post signaling his opposition to the stock trading ban came after he told the Daily Caller during a press conference Wednesday that he “conceptually” liked the legislation, but cautioned that he was not aware of the bill’s details. The president also called on Pelosi to be investigated over alleged insider trading.
“I don’t know about it, but I like it conceptually,” Trump said. “But I study these things very carefully, and this just happened. So, I’ll take a look at it. But conceptually I like it and what I do think is that 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 by she knows exactly what’s gonna happen, she buys stock and then the stock goes up after the announcement is made. And she ought to be investigated.”
Pelosi quickly endorsed the stock trading ban following the president’s comments. Trump, in his Truth Social post, argued that Pelosi’s enthusiasm for Hawley’s measure signifies the legislation’s defects.
“I wonder why Hawley would pass a Bill that Nancy Pelosi is in absolute love with — He is playing right into the dirty hands of the Democrats,” Trump wrote. “It’s a great Bill for her, and her ‘husband,’ but so bad for our Country!”
“I want the president to sign the bill, so I’m happy to do whatever it would take to get him to say, ‘Yes, this is good. I want to sign it,’” Hawley told reporters. “I want it resolved.”
“If the president says, you know, I’m not comfortable with it as it’s written — I mean, we’re gonna have to change it,” Hawley continued. “So I’m happy to do that.”
Scott vigorously opposed the stock trading ban during debate over its passage out of committee Wednesday morning. He argued the legislation unfairly infringed on the president’s authority and would be used as a political cudgel to attack the president by Senate Democrats.
“This bill is just an attack on the president. It allows the Democrats to attack him after President Trump has gone through Russiagate, special investigator, impeachments, and indictments,” Scott told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Wednesday. “And this is just going to be another way where the Democrats can go after the president.”
Hawley is a populist-oriented senator who frequently breaks with Republicans on economic issues. The Missouri Republican introduced a bill Tuesday to give most Americans and their dependent children a $600 tariff rebate, which received little support from his GOP colleagues.
Andi Shae Napier contributed to this report
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