Georgia Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler defended herself Friday over continued claims that she engaged in insider trading during the coronavirus pandemic.
Loeffler spoke with Fox News host Sandra Smith on “America’s Newsroom” about the issue.
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Following a discussion about President Donald Trump’s plan to reopen America incrementally, Smith turned the conversation back to Loeffler’s stock sales.
“I want to circle back. We had you on this program within 24 hours of the news coming out suggesting that for some reason you had made an insider trade, you and your husband with your individual investments, your private investments,” Smith began.
“You came on our program and denied that. You have since said you were going to liquidate your individual stock additions despite the fact that you are defending yourself on that. You said just to avoid the controversy and the criticism. Have you and your husband done that?” (RELATED: Sen. Kelly Loeffler Says She Will Liquidate Individual Stock Shares After Coronavirus Stock Dumping Reports)
Loeffler said that they had done that, adding, “This is a political attack that is designed to distract from the issue at hand and to use this outbreak to play politics. We have addressed this and taken extraordinary measures to make sure that we can’t be attacked for our success. This gets at the very heart of why I came to Washington, to defend free enterprise, to defend capitalism, and this is a socialist attack.”
Smith pressed once more, asking Loeffler to confirm that the investments in question had been liquidated.
“That’s right, we have,” Loeffler replied. “We have taken extraordinary measures to take that off the table as an attack area and we are done with it and we are moving on. I’ve been focused on Georgians 24/7 addressing this crisis and we are ready to get back to work safely.”
Loeffler, along with North Carolina Republican Sen. Richard Burr, was accused of using information she received during a coronavirus briefing to decide when to sell off millions in stocks before the pandemic negatively impacted the markets. The Georgia senator has denied wrongdoing, saying that her portfolio was entirely under third-party control at the time.