Top-ranked podcaster Joe Rogan and former Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich discussed how unusually successful Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her husband, Paul Pelosi, are in the stock market, drawing new attention to a subject many of her critics have highlighted in the past.
The estimated worth of the Pelosis is around $240 million as of July, according to a Times Now report. That is up significantly from an estimated $171.4 million in 2021, according to Newsweek. Pelosi has long denied any wrongdoing, despite many concerns from both sides of the political aisle.
“Her estimated net worth has increased significantly since 2008 thanks in large part to the success of her husband, Paul Pelosi, who is a venture capitalist and property investor. It’s not possible to know the precise net worth of members of Congress as they are only required to provide a range of values in their financial disclosures and not specific dollar amounts,” Newsweek noted.
The Washington Free Beacon also estimated then that Pelosi’s net worth had risen by $140 million since 2008.
Many have speculated — without providing any evidence — that Pelosi, as a member of Congress and especially during her two tenures as Speaker of the House, was privy to insider information regarding companies that were set to explode in value or to lose value as a way to explain the couple’s outsized success in the stock market.
During the Rogan podcast, the host told Blagojevich that someone developed an app called Autopilot, which tracks stock trading by members of Congress, including Pelosi.
“Oh, it’s so good,” Rogan said. “I’m not really a stock market person. I don’t pay attention. But, I do know people that are very invested in the stock market. And ‘Pelosi stock tracker’ is legit. Like, you could find out what she’s buying and you should buy it.”
“She’s a really good stockbroker Rod,” Rogan added sarcastically. “She’s super good at it.”
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Earlier this month, a Republican senator said he believes that President Joe Biden’s call for a ban on congressional stock trading on his way out of the White House is a “dig” at Pelosi, who has come under scrutiny for years over her and her husband’s successful investments.
“I don’t think (Biden) and Nancy Pelosi are getting along very well right now after Pelosi fired him from being president,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) told Alabama Daily News. “I don’t know how she was able to do that, but she convinced him to get out of the race, which he should have, but it was her.”
The San Fran-based political power couple has achieved some of the highest stock market returns among members of Congress, with their trades reportedly yielding returns exceeding 720% over the past decade.
Pelosi has been hesitant to back legislation that would completely prohibit members of Congress from trading stocks. In 2021, she told reporters, “We are a free market economy,” adding that members of Congress “should be able to participate in that.”
“I think while she’s laying up somewhere in Germany – she unfortunately fell and hurt her leg (and) had to have an operation – he decided while she was gone, after 50 years by the way of him being up there in Washington, D.C., (that) now it’s time, as I’m going out the door, to stop stock trading,” Tuberville added.
The Alabama senator has had success of his own in the stock market, but he has repeatedly said he does not have any direct involvement in the makeup of his portfolio.
“I’ve said all along that I don’t get anything up here that gives me an opportunity to make money on stocks any more than anybody,” he told ADN. “I don’t do it myself, I’ve got people that do it. I don’t get involved in that, I don’t understand what’s the big deal. I guess there are people that have made money somehow, some way; I didn’t come up here to do that.”
Biden expressed his support for banning congressional stock trading in an interview previewed on Tuesday, set to be released this week by a far-left labor advocacy group called More Perfect Union.
