Elizabeth Warren Turns The IBM Stock Hit Job On Her Into A Total Fail

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During a recent appearance on Current TV, Elizabeth Warren used her ownership of IBM stock to prove once again why there is no comparison between her and Mitt Romney.

Here is the video from Current TV’s The War Room:

When Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren was asked about her stock holdings –specifically IBM — by Jennifer Granholm, she said, “The IBM stock, yes, we own it. I’ve owned it since, it was actually a pretty modest investment made thirty five years ago I think, and the money’s been reinvested. If I were in Congress, I’d sell it in a heartbeat. I don’t think people in Congress ought to own stock in companies where they can influence the outcomes. Other than that, my retirement funds are held in big mutual funds. There’s no way to influence the outcome of any part of that at least not that I know, but the heart of this is about what our public officials should be doing. I don’t think they ought to be trading on insider information, but more importantly, I don’t think they ought to be out there influencing potentially their own pocket books when they’re making decisions on behalf of the public.”

This question stemmed from a piece in HuffPo a few days ago that read more like a hit job on Elizabeth Warren than investigative journalism. Elizabeth Warren never said that she wasn’t rich, but that she wasn’t a wealthy individual with a big stock portfolio. Her statement was not in the same ballpark as Mitt Romney’s claims that he is unemployed too, or that he has feared losing his job.

It may come as a shock to some, but a person can have money and still be a strong advocate for those who have less. The big “bombshell” of the HuffPo story was that Warren owns stock in IBM and is pretty wealthy herself. The difference between Elizabeth Warren and Mitt Romney is honesty. Warren directly stated that she owned the stock and said that she would sell it in a heartbeat. There was no evasiveness in her answer. There was no dodge.

The difference is principles. Elizabeth Warren believes that members of Congress shouldn’t own stock, so is more than willing to sell her own, while Mitt Romney has spent his campaign trying to keep the American people in the dark about his money and how he made it.

In a deft move, Warren turned the IBM stock story into an opportunity to strongly call for an end to insider trading in Congress. Mitt Romney wants to be president, so that he can protect his fellow inside traders.

There is simply no comparison between Elizabeth Warren’s IBM stock and Mitt Romney’s quarter of billion dollars made by killing jobs.