Trump calls GOP’s Hawley ‘second tier’ senator after stock trading ban bill advances

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lashed out at Sen. Josh Hawley on Wednesday after the Republican’s proposal to ban stock trading by members of Congress — and the president and vice president — won bipartisan approval to advance in a committee vote.

It’s the second time in as many days that Trump laid into senators in his own party as the president tries, sometimes without success, to publicly pressure them to fall in line. A day earlier Trump tore into veteran GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa over an obscure Senate procedure regarding nominations.

Trump called Hawley a “second rate Senator.”

GOP senators had been working with the White House on the stock trade bill, and proposed a carve-out to shield the president from the ban, but it failed. But Trump complained that Hawley joined with Democrats to block another amendment that would have investigated the stock trades of Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker emerita.

“Why would one ‘Republican,’ Senator Josh Hawley from the Great State of Missouri, join with all of the Democrats, to block a Review,” Trump said.

Hawley did not immediately respond to Trump’s post.

But Hawley’s legislation with the panel’s top Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, sailed out of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on a bipartisan vote over the objections of the other Republicans, who have majority control.

“We have an opportunity here today to do something that the public has wanted to do for decades,” Hawley told the panel. “And that is to ban members of Congress from profiting on information that frankly only members of Congress have on the buying and selling of stock.”

Stock trading by members of Congress has long been an issue that the parties have tried to tackle, especially as some elected officials have become wealthy while in elected office. During the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, it was disclosed that lawmakers were trading as information about the health crisis as it became known. Insider trading laws don’t always apply to the types of information lawmakers receive.

In a joint statement, Hawley and Peters said the legislation, called the Honest Act, builds on an earlier bill and would ban members of Congress, the president, vice president and their spouses from holding, buying or selling stock.

If the bill were to become law, it would immediately prohibit elected officials, including the president, from buying stocks and would ban them from selling stocks for 90 days after enactment. It also requires the elected officials to divest from all covered investments, starting at the beginning of their next term in office.

“We are one step closer to getting this bill passed into law and finally barring bad actors from taking advantage of their positions for their own financial gain,” Peters said in a statement.

But during the committee hearing, tensions flared as Republicans sought other approaches.

GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida proposed one amendment that would exempt the president, the vice president, their spouses and dependent children, from the legislation, and another that would have required a report on Pelosi’s trades. Both were defeated, with Hawley joining the Democrats.

One Republican, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, said the overall bill is “legislative demagoguery.”

“We do have insider trading laws. We have financial disclosure. Trust me, we have financial disclosure,” Johnson said. “So I don’t see the necessity of this.”

Trump’s post criticizing Hawley comes after a similar blowback directed Tuesday night at Grassley.

In that post, Trump pressured Grassley to do away with the Senate’s longtime “blue slip” custom that often forces bipartisan support on presidential nominations of federal judges. The practice requires both senators in a state to agree to push a nominee forward for a vote. Trump told Grassley to do away with the practice.

“Senator Grassley must step up,” Trump said, while claiming that he helped the senator, who was first elected in 1980, to win reelection.

Grassley earlier Wednesday said he was “offended” by what the president said.

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