The newest Republican senator, Georgia's Kelly Loeffler, has proven to be a very fast learner when it comes to grifting in her new job. Loeffler, who is probably the single wealthiest member of the Senate, and her husband Jeff Sprecher, CEO of the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange, have traded millions’ worth of stocks starting Jan. 24, the very same day that she received a classified briefing on the threat posed by the novel coronavirus.
Millions of dollars now made, Loeffler has announced she and her husband will sell off the remainder of their stock holdings. Not because she did anything wrong, she says, still maintaining what sure looks like fiction that she had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever about the trades that were made. She says she wants to avoid further controversy. And make herself the victim. Of course.
These Republicans won't be satisfied until they've stolen everything. Please give $1 to our nominee fund to help Democrats end the Republican majority in the Senate.
"I’m not doing this because I have to," Loeffler wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. "I've done everything the right way and in compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, Senate ethics rules and U.S. law. I'm doing it because the issue isn't worth the distraction. My family's investment accounts are being used as weapons for an assault on my character at a time when we should all be focused on making our country safe and strong."
Doubling down on the "poor little me" narrative, she said in a statement announcing her decision: "Amid this health crisis, the temptation to circulate lies and misinformation is too great for the media and my political opponents." What a martyr, huh? "That is why I'm taking steps to remove this temptation so that we can turn our focus back to where it belongs: on combating COVID-19 and restoring our country to health and economic recovery."