'Publicity show!' Senate hearing chaos as Republican adds Trump to stock trading bill

A Senate committee devolved into chaos after the president and vice president were added to Sen. Josh Hawley's (R-MO) bill to prevent stock trading by certain elected officials.

During a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), a co-sponsor of the bill, suggested he had changed his mind in light of the changes that would impact President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

"I made a decision to sell every single one of my assets before the primary," Moreno said. "But here's my question. Is this really the right way to run a railroad? We're being thrown at us reams of paper, lots of dialogue, and then we're taking a vote. If you had a gun to my head, I could not tell you what we're about to vote for. I have no idea what we're voting for."

"I was a co-sponsor with Senator Hawley on the Pelosi Act," he continued. "I have not read the mountains of paper that's in front of me. And I think it's wholly irresponsible for us to sit here. Pretty much, let's be honest, this is a publicity show, and then be asked to vote on something where we have literally no idea what we're voting on."

"But to just put a vote out there, we have literally no idea what we're voting for is gross incompetence and irresponsibility."

Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) noted that changes to the bill had been delivered to the senators via computer on Friday.

"With all due respect, look, sending something out Friday through some random computer system is also disrespectful of the people on this committee!" Moreno exclaimed.

"Senator, we do use computers in the Senate," Peters remarked. "I know that might be kind of weird for you, but we do use those."

"And then let me go back to, I mean, President Trump is treated like every other member," he added. "There's no trading within 90 days... This is a minor change."

"Mr. Peters, if you want to have a who-knows-more-about-technology battle, let's have that battle," Moreno quipped. "I know more about technology in my pinky than you do."

Watch the video below.