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Rand Paul Caught In COVID Insider Trading Scandal - YouTube
Channel: The Young Turks
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rand paul's wife purchased stock from
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gilead sciences
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and rand paul who's supposed to report
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that didn't do so in fact he didn't
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report it until 16 months after the
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deadline to do so which does certainly
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raise some red flags but the timing of
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the gilead share purchases certainly
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also raises a red flag and let me give
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you those details so rand paul revealed
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that his wife bought stock in gilead
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sciences which makes the anti-viral drug
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used to treat covet 19 on february 26
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2020 before the threat from the
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coronavirus was fully understood by the
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public and before it was classified as a
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pandemic by the world health
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organization
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now
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the timing is important uh especially
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because you had members of congress
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certainly various committees in the
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senate who were briefed uh in you know
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non-public meetings
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on coronavirus so they had information
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about the severity of the pandemic
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before the general public did the
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purchase was of between 1000 and fifteen
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thousand dollars in stock in gilead
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which makes the anti-viral drug known as
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rem de sevier the company's stock was
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worth seventy four dollars and seventy
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cents per share on the day of the
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purchase and rose above eighty dollars
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in march
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it has since fluctuated and was worth
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69.84
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on the day of paul's disclosure more
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than a year later so again it took him
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16 months to report this he missed the
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deadline i think that's a huge problem
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but what i would argue is a far larger
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problem is that we have members of
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congress
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and
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the spouses of members of congress who
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are able to invest in individual stocks
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that in and of itself is a huge problem
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even if this gets investigated and
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there's no evidence of insider trading
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taking place the fact that you have
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congressional lawmakers and their
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families invested in individual stocks
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certainly serves as a conflict of
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interest and so was there insider
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trading taking place we don't know yet
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but we do have a few more details paul
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is a member of the senate health
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committee which in january in january
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hosted trump administration officials
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for a briefing on the coronavirus so
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this briefing happens in january
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and then
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his wife rand paul's wife decides to buy
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uh shares of rem de sevier which was
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later used as a treatment for
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coronavirus
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in february so
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i want to get your thoughts charles
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because this is an issue that's been
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pretty infuriating i mean when you
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really look at how widespread this
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problem is in congress and how much it
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impacts some of the policy decisions
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they make it shows you that you know
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this conflict of interest really does
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work against the best interests of the
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american people and the very individuals
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who voted these congressional lawmakers
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into office in the first place
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so sure there is a sentiment among many
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people that the rich get richer and the
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poor get poorer and so
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examples of stories like these are just
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fuel for the fire that suggests that
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there is going to be a class of people
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who are continuing to have and a class
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of people who will continue to have not
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and when i talk about haves and
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have-nots i'm talking about information
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as much as i'm talking about money and
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you you know you went as far as to say
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that members of congress and their
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families or their immediate families
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should not be allowed to trade publicly
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and while i also you know sort of had
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that in my head in terms of something
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that i was mulling over i wasn't
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prepared to go that far how you know i
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was going to say that maybe there should
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be tighter restrictions but the reality
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is when i think about it and i think it
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through there's been story after story
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after story where we have seen that with
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the exte with the restrictions that are
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currently in place and the attempts that
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people have made the the ethics
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committee in both houses of congress in
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terms of trying to create transparency
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around reporting and things of that
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nature we still have continued
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violations right now senator richard
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burr is still under investigation from
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the fec
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around
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around potential violations with respect
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to uh insider trading and he is one of
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the remaining senators some of the other
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ones feinstein and others were loffler
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and others were cleared during uh the
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initial probe that took place in the
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wake of a number of stocks being dumped
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immediately before the announcement um
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of coronavirus and the pandemic i say
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all that to say
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that what we've seen over and over again
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time and time again is that
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unfortunately people in positions of
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power at least not in the united states
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congress can be trusted cannot be
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trusted to make good decisions when it
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comes to
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trading and having access to information
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and obviously in many in many cases
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overwhelmingly having the means to take
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advantage of that information in the
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market and so this is an example of
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something that unfortunately supports
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your position in my opinion because
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you know one would like to think that if
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you put out stricter regulations for
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people in power that that would be
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enough but what we are seeing is that
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unfortunately that is not the case and
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so you may be right and as much as
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perhaps the solution is just an
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altogether prohibition for that for
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members of congress and their immediate
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families and or spouses
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um you know in order to curtail this
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because i don't see it changing anytime
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soon and rand paul at the end of the day
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not only should he know better but quite
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frankly he did know better yeah he of
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course he did know better i think it's
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i mean the fact that he waited this long
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to disclose that his wife purchased this
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particular stock i think is again it's a
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huge red flag but this goes beyond rand
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paul and his wife and i also want to
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just clarify when i say lawmakers and
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their families i'm not talking about
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extended families i'm certainly talking
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about their immediate family their
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spouses uh because they live in the same
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household and so if their wives or their
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husbands are buying shares of a company
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it still has the same impact as it would
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if it were the particular public servant
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doing it him or herself and that's the
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thing i would like our public servants
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to live up to that title
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being a public servant means that you
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have to sacrifice things including
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investing in individual stocks for
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companies that you are going to make
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legislative decisions about and i love
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that you brought up uh senator burr
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because that was really the story that
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forced me to kind of explore how
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widespread this problem is and i want to
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share this video with you all because it
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gives you a sense of how widespread it
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is and how much of a problem it becomes
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in terms of governing
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in march 2020 news spread that four u.s
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senators including burr were being
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investigated for insider trading ahead
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of the drastic escalations in this
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pandemic while still reassuring citizens
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that the u.s was prepared senator burr
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vehemently denies the allegations
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against him but here's what we know on
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january 24th the senate's health
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committee held a briefing with cdc
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director robert redfield and white house
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pandemic advisor dr anthony fauci
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according to the washington post about
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two weeks later burr and tennessee
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senator lamar alexander wrote a fox news
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editorial that the u.s was better
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prepared than ever to deal with a
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pandemic like the coronavirus
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less than a week later the dow set an
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all-time record hitting just over 29
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551 points on february 13th burr sold
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between 630 000 and 1.7 million dollars
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worth of investments
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he did it in 33 separate transactions
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and he didn't buy a single share
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perhaps worse burr may have discussed
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the stock sales with his brother-in-law
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and others according to reporting by
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propublica and a secret recording
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obtained by npr there's one thing that i
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can tell you about this it is much more
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aggressive than its transition than
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anything that we have
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seen in recent history
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it's probably more akin to the 1918
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pandemic
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so burr implicated his own brother by
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having that conversation
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he it appears acted on insider
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information while downplaying the
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coronavirus pandemic to the general
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public
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kelly lefler did the same thing
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thankfully she was elected out of office
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in the
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senate runoff races in georgia and when
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it comes to
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holding these lawmakers to account or
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ensuring that they're not engaging in
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insider trading how does that
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investigation go down how do they
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determine whether or not there's any
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wrongdoing well this next video will
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give you a little more information on
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that
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insider trading isn't just done by
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wealthy financiers or celebrities
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politicians have unique insight into
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what most outsiders don't the size and
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scope of what congress is involved in
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has broadened dramatically i mean
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whether it's healthcare whether it's
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defense whether it's financial markets
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and they have market moving information
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and they're going to act on that
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information i mean information is king a
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groundbreaking 2004 study by a group of
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professors and researchers examined the
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records of u.s senators between 1993 and
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1998. the study found that a portfolio
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tracking the stocks that the u.s
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senators bought during the same time
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period outperformed the market by 85
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basis points each month in a portfolio
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that tracked the stocks that the
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senators sold during the period lagged
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behind the market by 12 basis points
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the study concluded that the senators
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knew appropriate times to both buy and
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sell their common stocks the stock act
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is enforced by the department of justice
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and the securities and exchange
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commission
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and where do they get their funding they
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get their funding from congress which is
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the very body that they are supposed to
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be regulating so the stock act is good
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but i think we need to do a whole lot
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better
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i mean charles i mean when you think
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about how congress makes the
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decisions regarding appropriations for
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the very bodies that uh do these
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investigations into insider trading and
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when you also consider that they do
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these senate senate ethics committee
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investigations meaning that their
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colleagues
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conduct investigations into what they've
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been doing and it's very likely that
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their own colleagues are engaging in the
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same behavior the investigators are
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likely engaging in the same behavior i
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mean it's all a farce it's all insanely
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ridiculous that the investigations go
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down the way they do um and so after the
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senate's ethics committee senate ethics
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committee looked into leftler and
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feinstein they argued that no no no we
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can't there's no evidence of uh insider
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trading not at all nothing come on no
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you're
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you're absolutely right and i think that
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at the end of the day congress has a
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decision to make with regard to
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uh public transparency and civic
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engagement and this is a larger broader
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more ideological conversation but it's
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still one that's relevant and it's
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relevant because if we think about what
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we saw on january 6th if we think about
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what we have seen in the wake of last
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year's election in terms of their people
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still who do not want to accept the
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results because they believe that our
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democracy was hijacked right there is
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this this overarching sense of
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misinformation and lack of transparency
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and when you connect the dots across
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these things what you will find is you
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cannot have it both ways you cannot put
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forth a system where the game appears to
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be rigged against folks and then
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you know land base the people who don't
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trust the system and think that the game
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is rigged that's what they're seeing and
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that's what you're showing them so if
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you want people to participate in
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earnest and you want people to trust the
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system and have faith in it and believe
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that it operates in it with integrity
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then you have to avoid situations like
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these where it appears as though you're
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trying to have your cake and eat it too
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and i think that's part of the problem
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that we don't necessarily make
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connections to we need to understand
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that these have broader implications
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beyond just rand paul or or richard burr
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or anyone else on the individual level
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but that it really does damage people's
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level of faith and integrity in the
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system that you are asking people and
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quite frankly requiring them to
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participate in as a cornerstone in how
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we live and operate as americans i think
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that's such a great point i mean we're
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seeing the consequences of the lack of
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trust in our institutions uh you know
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when we look at you know groups of
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conspiracy theorists and all of that and
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we wonder like why won't they believe
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the information why won't they believe
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the evidence well they've lost trust in
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institutions including our you know
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government congress and this behavior
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certainly doesn't uh help to mitigate
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that or alleviate that
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well let's move on to our next story oh
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go ahead
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no i was just gonna you know add a
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moment of levity to this before we move
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on
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imagine
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getting information
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and then betting on the wrong horse
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i know like you think about deservier
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and rand paul's wife she actually is
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losing money now which actually you know
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which which sucks quite frankly but i
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think that's the sort of silver lining
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to the story is kind of like imagine you
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got the inside track and you bet on the
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wrong horse to win and then that to me
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just kind of makes me laugh but i know
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it is pretty amazing i love that they're
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also using that as a defense by the way
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it's like no no we didn't do anything
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wrong we're losing money from this
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that's funny so it's okay yeah
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obviously it's not okay uh but we'll see
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what happens i mean
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i i don't have a lot of faith
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considering the outcome of the
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investigation into lefleur and feinstein
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i know burr is still being investigated
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because his case was
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even more egregious than others uh but
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we'll see how it plays out i just think
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of the best way to prevent any type of
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speculation of wrongdoing is to prevent
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these public servants and their spouses
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from in inves investing in individual
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stocks it's that simple thanks for
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watching the young troops really
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appreciate it another way to show
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