MONTGOMERY, Ala. — In a call with news media last week, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville characterized President Joe Biden’s recent call to ban congressional stock trading as a retaliation against U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, for her alleged role in pressuring the president to step out of the 2024 race.
“I don’t think (Biden) and Nancy Pelosi are getting along very well right now after Pelosi fired him from being president,” Tuberville told Alabama Daily News. “I don’t know how she was able to do that, but she convinced him to get out of the race, which he should have, but it was her.”
Pelosi, along with her husband, Paul Pelosi, have seen among the highest returns in the stock market among members of Congress, with her stock trades yielding returns of more than 720% over the past decade. As of August, the Pelosis have an estimated net worth of more than $230 million.
Pelosi has been reluctant to support legislation that would outright ban members of Congress from trading stocks, telling reporters in 2021 that “we are a free market economy,” and that members of Congress “should be able to participate in that.”
“I think while she’s laying up somewhere in Germany – she unfortunately fell and hurt her leg (and) had to have an operation – he decided while she was gone, after 50 years by the way of him being up there in Washington, D.C., (that) now it’s time, as I’m going out the door, to stop stock trading,” Tuberville said.
Tuberville himself has been among the more successful members of Congress when it comes to trading stocks, with a trade volume in 2024 of $7.16 million; $1.68 million in stock purchases, and $5.48 million in sales. As a member of the agriculture committee, Tuberville’s buying and selling of corn and cattle contracts have been described as “possible conflicts” of interest by a New York Times analysis.
Tuberville also commented on criticism of his own stock trading, arguing that he has no direct involvement in the makeup of his stock portfolio.
“I’ve said all along that I don’t get anything up here that gives me an opportunity to make money on stocks any more than anybody,” he told ADN. “I don’t do it myself, I’ve got people that do it. I don’t get involved in that, I don’t understand what’s the big deal. I guess there are people that have made money somehow, some way; I didn’t come up here to do that.”
Biden endorsed banning congressional stock trading in an interview previewed on Tuesday, set to be released this week by the pro-labor advocacy organization More Perfect Union.