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Rob Bresnahan’s local newspaper is officially calling on the congressman to “stop all trading” as he faces accusations that he is trading off of his votes in Congress.
In a blistering takedown from the Times Leader Editorial Board, the paper highlights how Bresnahan dumped stock in a Medicaid provider directly before voting to gut Medicaid and notes that even “Bresnahan hasn’t denied the trade and the vote happened in that order.” The paper chastises Bresnahan for comparing his prolific trading to hard working Americans, writing: “For Bresnahan to compare his personal situation with ‘what millions of hardworking Americans do’ is glib at best.”
They close with a simple message for Bresnahan: “There is a simple step he could take to avoid even a hint of impropriety. Tell his investment advisor to stop all trading until the blind trust is final.” Will he adhere to their call?
Read the Times Leader’s take below:
Times Leader Editorial Board: We’ve been here before, and we’re just as skeptical
July 9, 2025
- U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan is accused of profiting from his vote for President Donald Trump’s massive economic bill, and his defense was blunt: “My financial advisor has made these trades with zero input from me.”
- We’ve been here before, and it was a bit hard to accept the same logic then.
- Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Spokesperson Eli Cousin said Bresnahan “recently sold stock in Centene — ‘the largest Medicaid managed care organization in the nation’ — just days before voting to gut Medicaid. The stock has now fallen more than 40% since his sale.” It’s important to note Bresnahan hasn’t denied the trade and the vote happened in that order. Instead, he used the financial adviser defense. “I learn about (these trades) the same time the public does. … I did not make this trade, and I had no knowledge of it.”
- He called the DCCC statement a “smear campaign … trying to attack me for doing what millions of hardworking Americans do, which is hiring a financial advisor to manage their investments.”
- […] For Bresnahan to compare his personal situation with “what millions of hardworking Americans do” is glib at best.
- But as noted, we’ve been here before. In 2012, a Times Leader analysis showed than then-U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta — a Republican like Bresnahan — owned a wide array of stocks that could be and almost certainly were impacted by his votes in Congress. When asked about it, he gave the same defense. “My financial adviser has total discretion,” he said. “I’m not even notified until after the transaction.”
- But let’s accept Bresnahan’s claims he knew nothing about the stock deals, is setting up a blind trust, and that the TRUST Act is a personal effort to curb abuse of the stock market by legislators. There is a simple step he could take to avoid even a hint of impropriety.
- Tell his investment advisor to stop all trading until the blind trust is final.
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