It’s not news that NJ.com and its opinion page editor Tom Moran are in the business of Leftist activist, not journalism, Save Jerseyans. But this latest Moran post is a new low for the state’s flagship newspaper.
The title is also Moran’s thesis: “Malinowski’s Stock Scandal Is Not Much Of A Scandal.” That’s right! Congressman Tom Malinowski (D, NJ-07) broke the law, failed to report $3.2 million in stock trades (including $1 million worth of pandemic-related stocks), and Tom Moran says it ain’t no big thing!
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Prepare yourself for some twisted logic:
…there is no evidence that Malinowski used inside information to gain advantage in the market. No one is accusing him of that, and even the bloodthirsty AP article concedes the point. It turns out that “chasing profits” means he’s one of millions of people playing the market, with no special advantage.
So, at its core, this is not much of a scandal. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina lost his chairmanship after he received secret briefings of the impending disaster in January 2020, sold from his own portfolio to avoid losses, and told the public everything was just fine. In Georgia’s recent Senate race, Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler both made a flurry of profitable trades after that briefing, and both paid a price at the polls.
Does Tom Moran really believe Tom Moran?
It’s hard to imagine he could!
I’d argue Malinowski’s sin is actually WORSE than insider trading. Here, the two-term Democrat didn’t report, for example, trades of “stock in medical and tech companies that had a stake in the virus response” (per the AP). As a member of Congress and close Murphy ally, Malinowski was in a position to influence federal and state pandemic response policies which, in turn, impacted the value of the stocks he was trading. That’s more repugnant and morally blameworthy than acting on information that you had no role in manipulating! There’s also the not-so-small point (conveniently ignored by Moran) that Malinowski went on TV and BLASTED others for pandemic profiteering while he was doing exactly that.
Tom Moran’s tortured logic isn’t surprising. He threw impartiality to the wind and savaged Republican challenger Tom Kean Jr. during the latter’s 2020 contest with Malinowski, a race that the incumbent won by only a few thousands votes.
I’m not a betting man, Save Jerseyans, but if I was, I think the public is going to see through Malinowski’s bullshit this time around and, in turn, Moran’s third-rate propaganda.
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