Rep. Nancy Pelosi, 84, has raised eyebrows and some scorn by growing very rich during her years in the House.
Last year, Mrs. Pelosi enjoyed a whopping 65% return on her investments, well more than double the S&P 500’s overall 24% gain, the Daily Mail reported.
Normally liberal talk show host Jon Stewart took aim at the career politician this week. On his weekly appearance on “The Daily Show,” Mr. Stewart showed a video of Mrs. Pelosi answering a question about whether members of Congress and their spouses should be banned from trading stocks during their term.
“No, I don’t. No to the second one. This is a free market, and people — we’re a free market economy. They should be able to participate in that,” Mrs. Pelosi responded.
Said Mr. Stewart: “Ah, free market. ‘Excuse me, Ms. Speaker, I don’t mean to interrupt. I’m Martha Stewart from the, ‘Why the F—- Did I Go to Jail Times-Picayune.’ Why the f—- did I go to jail?’” he said of the lifestyle guru who went to prison after being convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice in an insider trading scandal.
“But here’s the thing. In a free market, everyone has access to the same information. So unless you’re going to put all of us on the committees, I don’t get it,” Mr. Stewart said.
The host mocked the scant oversight on Capitol Hill.
“Now, you might be wondering to yourself, how does Congress get away with all this? Well, it may be because Congress is regulated by, let me check my notes, Congress!” Mr. Stewart said. “And it’s Congress that has refused to even hold a vote on the bills that have been proposed to ban members of Congress from trading stocks. Because not letting members of Congress insider trade would be un-American! Just listen to one of the biggest beneficiaries of this stock windfall.”
And he mocked Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who is currently on trial for corruption. Mr. Stewart said he didn’t “need to break the law so cartoonishly when the legal corruption in the Senate is so f——— lucrative.”
“Promising favors to foreign entities for a little chump change on the side, it’s bush league, when as a U.S. senator, you can enrich yourself in so many different, let’s call them, ‘legal’ ways. For instance, the stock market,” Mr. Stewart said.
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