Jeffries backs stock trading ban after Greene buys market dip
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday backed a stock trading ban for sitting members of Congress, after ripping Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) for reportedly profiting off market fluctuations around President Trump's tariff rollercoaster.
The New York Times reported Monday that Greene disclosed thousands worth of stock trades on April 8 and 9, worth between $21,000 to $315,000. The outlet also said the Georgia Republican let go of Treasury bills valued from $50,000 to $100,000.
MSNBC’s Jen Psaki asked Jeffries about the report during an interview Monday night, noting the trades were made "two days before Trump announced he was pausing the sweeping global tariffs, notably stocks that were initially hit the hardest."
"That doesn't sound like a coincidence to me, but what do you think of that? And...what can happen to look into that?” she asked.
“So many of these people are crooks, liars, and frauds. And Marjorie Taylor Greene is, of course, exhibit A. We are seeing corruption unfold before us in real time,” Jeffries responded.
“And House Democrats and Senate Democrats are going to partner together to make sure we, of course, shine a spotlight on these issues. One, we do need to change the law so that sitting members of Congress cannot trade stock, period. Full stop," he added.
Stock trading bans for lawmakers have been proposed by House members on both sides of the aisle. It was a sensitive issue for Jeffries' predecessor as Democratic leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whose success in the stock market has been well documented. Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, is an investor.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) also tore into Greene during a rally in Idaho on Monday night as a part of her and Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.
“We saw Marjorie Taylor Greene buy that dip,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I got one question for her: How much did you make? How much did you make off of people’s despair?”
Ocasio-Cortez said Trump's shifting tariff regime was motivated by greed.
“I hope we see now that it was all about manipulating the markets so that he could quietly enrich his friends who bought the dip before reversing it all in the morning,” she said.
The Hill has reached out to Greene’s office for comment.
Ocasio-Cortez, who has long backed a ban on stock trading in Congress, last week advised her colleagues to disclose any trades around Trump's tariff announcements.
“Any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now. I’ve been hearing some interesting chatter on the floor,” she wrote late in a post on X.