Photo via @brooklynmutt/Twitter
August 13, 2021, 12:26 pm
Senator Rand Paul and his wife may have landed themselves in hot water after it was revealed that the couple bought their first single stock together in 10 years in early 2020, just as the pandemic was starting, and it just happened to be in a company that manufactures COVID-19 treatments. Also, they did so mere days after that briefing our federal lawmakers got on the novel coronavirus and how it was very likely about to engulf the globe and kill millions and eight days before Paul voted against an emergency pandemic relief bill.
Featured Video
Hide
Oh, and they apparently filed out all the proper paperwork to disclose the stock purchase, as is required by law for members of congress, but they conveniently “forgot” to hit the send button. Oops!
Advertisement
Hide
“Last year Dr. Paul completed the reporting form for an investment made by his wife using her own earnings, an investment which she has lost money on,” said a spokesperson for Paul. “In the process of preparing to file his annual financial disclosure for last year, he learned that the form was not transmitted and promptly alerted the filing office and requested their guidance. In accordance with that guidance, he filed both reports yesterday.”
Apparently, the couple made the disclosure 16 months late, finally hitting that “send” button on Wednesday. The amount of time it took as well as the clear money-making scheme going on at the expense of over 630,000 American lives and counting has left people rather unhappy and suspicious of the claim that this was an innocent mistake.
Many are having a particularly hard time buying this line considering the bad press other Republicans have received for trying to make money off of a killer pandemic that has left countless lives in shambles, including those two failed Georgia Senate candidates whose loss handed Democrats a majority. Republican Senator Richard Burr and Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski also caught heat for their gross investments, with Malinowski failing to disclose as much as $1 million in stock trades in medical companies around the same time as Paul.
Advertisement
Hide
Even after Paul allegedly “discovered” the “mistake,” he reportedly filed a supplemental report finally disclosing the trade three months after the deadline to do that. Average Americans can face serious punishments for shenanigans like these, but Paul is a federal senator, so probably no consequences.
No legal consequences, at least, but Paul’s political opponents are now holding this up as an example of why Paul isn’t fit for office. Charles Booker, who is taking a challenging run at Paul’s seat in Kentucky, slammed the senator for his highly suspicious whoopsie-daisy forgetting to disclose trading stock to profit off a pandemic fiasco.
“We have learned that Senator Rand Paul has used this pandemic to put money in his pocket,” said Booker in a video statement. “We’ve lost over 600,000 of our loved ones across this country. Rand Paul knew how bad it would be, and he decided to choose profits instead of protecting you, us.”
“This is egregious and it speaks to exactly who Rand Paul is. He has always seen us as a ladder, as a step stool, he has always stepped on our backs. He does not care whether we live or die.”
The bad press for Paul has continued into Friday, and his critics are not about to let anyone forget about this the way he allegedly “forgot” to disclose the trade.
Advertisement
Hide
In February 2020, the day after Gilead began clinical trials of Covid drug Remdesivir (a month before America learned about Covid), Rand Paul’s wife bought shares in the company, her first purchase of stock in an individual company in a decade. Open and shut insider trading case
— Duty To Warn
(@duty2warn) August 13, 2021
Rand Paul is as crooked as a dog’s hind leg.
— Jon Cooper
(@joncoopertweets) August 13, 2021
Advertisement Hide
*First Published: August 13, 2021, 12:26 pm
0 Comments