Keeping up the pressure on high-level Democrats as battles rage over everything from deportations to the Russia hoax from the first Trump Administration, back on July 31, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt further went on the attack against former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the Thursday White House press briefing.
Particularly, Leavitt repeated variations of the accusations hurled at Rep. Pelosi by President Trump and other Republicans, who allege that the California Democrat has enriched herself at the public’s expense by feeding insider information to her stock trading husband, thus reaping rich rewards as the market swings based on information she knew about ahead of time.
When Leavitt hurled accusations against Pelosi on that point so as to justify a ban on members of Congress from trading individual securities, her comments came the day after President Trump, said: “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 I’d have, you know, I study these things very carefully. And this just happened . . . what I do think is Nancy Pelosi should be investigated because what she has the highest return of anybody practically in the history of Wall Street, save a few.”
The White House Press Secretary built on that with some attacks of her own, justifying the stock trade banning PELOSI Act by saying that the reason such a ban is even needed in the first place is because of the sort of behavior that many see as being characterized by Nancy Pelosi. She said, “The reason that this idea to put a ban on stock trading for members of Congress is even a thing is because of Nancy Pelosi.”
Continuing, Leavitt conflated the wealth of Pelosi and her husband with Pelosi’s personal wealth from being a member of Congress, a mistake many conservatives make, before noting more correctly that the Pelosi portfolio exploded in value the year before. She said, “I mean, she is rightfully criticized because she makes $174,000 a year. Yet she has a net worth of approximately $413 million. In 2024, Nancy Pelosi’s stock portfolio — this was a fascinating statistic to me — grew 70% in one year in 2024.”
Adding to that, Leavitt said that President Trump thinks that sort of behavior needs to be banned. She also accused Pelosi of enriching herself by ripping off her constituents, saying, “I think the president stands with the American people on this. He doesn’t want to see people like Nancy Pelosi enriching themselves off of public service and ripping off their constituents in the process.”
Watch Leavitt here:
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The same day as Trump made his accusations of insider trading against Pelosi, CNN personality Jake Tapper asked her about them and she went berserk, snapping, “That’s ridiculous. In fact, I very much support the stop, the trading of members of Congress, not that I think anybody’s doing anything wrong. If they are, they are prosecuted and they go to jail. But because of the confidence it instills in the American people, don’t worry about this.”
She also noted that it is her husband who does the stock trading and investing for the family, not her, saying, “But I have no concern about the obvious investments that have been made over time. I’m not into it. My husband is. But it isn’t anything to do with anything insider.”
Watch her here: