Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) said she is not backing down on banning Congress members from stock trading in a recent appearance on Fox News's Jesse Watters Primetime, saying the short-term consequences are irrelevant to the longer-term goal of "saving the Republic."
Host Jesse Watters asked if the bill had passed the House of Representatives yet, which Rep. Luna said it has not, but "I am currently trying to do a discharge petition because Congress has continually messaged on this, but refused to actually bring a bill to the floor that would actually force members to vote on it."
"If you want to be a stock trader, get into a different career field, but do not do it in Congress," Rep. Luna continued.
Additionally, the Florida Congresswoman described herself as "taking a lot of heat, not just from my own party, but we are going to see it from the other side, and I am ready to name names. So you either put it on the ground and let us vote for it, or you can continue to lie to the American people on your position, on thinking that you should defend insider trading when everyone knows it is bipartisan and it is bicameral. It needs to stop."
Watters then asked Luna to name names, including whether or not House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is in on stock trading.
"I can tell you that I get a lot of pushback from leadership, and not just leadership itself," Luna answered, adding, "I actually received calls from other members of Congress saying that what we were doing was going to hurt people. I was also told that I would be putting the Republic in jeopardy because I was going to cost us the midterms if I brought this to the floor, and what I will tell you is that what I am trying to do is actually save the Republic."
"And so if you think that that is the biggest problem that we have in this country, maybe you should not be in the leadership position," Luna concluded.
