On Tuesday, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley took an opportunity to go completely, entirely, and even utterly scorched earth on President Joe Biden’s Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm, demanding that she resign from her position after the two got into a spicy exchange over her past financial transactions. If there’s one thing Hawley is good at, it’s ripping Democrats a brand new orifice through which to defecate.
And he clearly brought his A-game to deal with Granholm. I’d have hated to be her during this hearing. I bet she went out to her car and bawled her eyes out.
Fox News is reporting:
Hawley’s tense back-and-forth with Granholm came during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing held to review the Department of Energy’s 2025 budget request. The Missouri Republican excoriated the energy secretary for violating the STOCK Act and for continuing to own shares of individual companies last year despite testifying that she did not own any individual stock.
“It is outrageous that you misled us. It is outrageous that you are continuing to mislead us,” Hawley ripped Granholm, while somewhere behind him, an eagle sounded off with a screech of freedom. Okay not really, but that would’ve been cool, right?“This has got to change. And, frankly, you should go.”
And, separately, in a June 2023 letter to Energy and Natural Resource Committee leadership, Granholm said she owned shares of six unnamed individual companies worth up to $120,000 and that her husband owned $2,457.89 worth of shares in Ford Motor Company at the time of her under-oath testimony before the panel months prior.
During the April 20, 2023, hearing, Granholm told Hawley that she was “not owning individual stocks.” After discovering her and her husband’s ownership of stock, Granholm sold her husband’s Ford shares on May 15, 2023, and sold her remaining individual stock holdingsdays later, according to her letter.
“You neglected to report it to this committee for months afterwards,” the Missouri Republican went on to ask Granholm during the hearing. “Why did you mislead this committee?”
Secretary Granholm insisted to me a year ago she doesn’t trade stock in companies the Energy department regulates. False. She lied about owning stocks and then tried for months to cover it up. Why are all these government officials making 💰 on stocks they regulate? Corruption pic.twitter.com/QviXpXweKU
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) April 16, 2024
“Oh, my goodness,” Granholm replied. “I believed that I had sold all individual stocks and I was incorrect. So, I came back as soon as I found out that, in fact, I had not sold all individual stocks.”
Hawley wasn’t having any of Granholm’s funny business. He immediately pointed out that she waited an entire month before telling the committee about the transactions.
“I did not hide it because I brought it forth to the committee when I realized that we had made a mistake,” Granholm said.
The senator then took Granholm to the woodshed for allowing employees in the agency to own individual stocks. The Wall Street Journal reported last year that there were hundreds of senior officials working for the DOE that owned stocks that were related to the work done at the agency, which is obviously a conflict-of-interest.
He then went on to say that senior DOE officials owning stock reveals that there is “institutionalized corruption in the Department of Energy.”
“Granholm responded, saying officials strictly own stocks in companies in areas they do not have any influence over. She also said the agency has a strong ethics office that reviews relevant transactions,” Fox News concluded.
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