At a "Fight Oligarchy Tour' event in Salt Lake City, Utah on Sunday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) spoke about members of Congress trading stocks amid President Trump's pause on tariffs.
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00:00And when I got to Congress, I was genuinely shocked by how the place worked.
00:12Even having run against dark money in the first place.
00:16The everyday influence of corruption was astonishing.
00:21We have somehow conditioned ourselves to believe that it is normal for members of Congress
00:29who swore an oath to the people to somehow day trade individual stocks
00:35and make millions with the sensitive information we are entrusted with to serve.
00:42How, I ask you, can anyone possibly make an objective vote on health care, energy, or war
00:50when their personal money is tied up in pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, or defense company stocks?
00:58You can't.
01:01And we saw this play out this week with Trump's corrupt and disastrous tariff scheme.
01:08And I hope that we can see now that Trump's tariff scheme didn't have anything to do with manufacturing like they claimed.
01:17It was all about manipulating the markets so he could quietly enrich his friends who bought the dip before reversing it all in the morning.
01:27All while our seniors and retirees suffered.
01:32Salt Lake City, this is a matter of fact.
01:36Donald Trump is a criminal.
01:41He was found guilty of 34 felony counts of fraud.
01:47Of course he is lying and manipulating the stock market too.
01:51He makes himself rich.
01:53The billionaires who back him rich.
01:55And the members of Congress who collude with him rich.
01:58But not you or us or any working person in this country.
02:02And to be clear, I don't care what party you are.
02:07Democrat or Republican.
02:08It doesn't matter how powerful or what position you have.
02:12Members of Congress holding and trading individual stock is wrong.
02:17It is corrosive.
02:18It is destructive.
02:19And it must be banned.
02:24And you can run the tape.
02:27Because I have always held this position, whether it was Democrats or Republicans in charge.
02:34And I'll give you another example of something that's shocking when I got to Congress.
02:40Just this year, I was named to the Energy and Commerce Committee.
02:45This is one of the most powerful committees in all of Congress.
02:51And for years, lobbyists fought to keep me off it.
02:55In no small part because I believe in Medicare for all.
03:00And because lobbyists don't like what they don't control.
03:06And an interesting thing happened the day that it was announced that I was put on that committee.
03:14Our phones and the phones in my office rang off the hook.
03:19Our inboxes exploded with emails from virtually every corporate lobbyist under the sun.
03:28All of a sudden, they wanted to be friends.
03:32They wanted to be friends.
03:33But you know what, Salt Lake City?
03:35Because of you all.
03:37Because of your support.
03:39Because you all show up.
03:41Because you allow me to not take a dime in corporate money.
03:46You free me to say no.
03:48And we can free others to say no too.
03:53I've seen how these groups bully members of Congress.
03:58They threaten to take money away or threaten to spend it against them if they don't do what they want.
04:03And what they want is for our lives to be as expensive as possible on the lowest possible wage.
04:10And it trickles down to how life feels for working people today.
04:15And let Danny Walters go in and share with you the amazing people today.
04:29Thank you very much.