Trump Health Pick 'Offended' by Questions About Stocks

Tom Price grilled by Franken, Warren
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 19, 2017 12:19 AM CST
Trump Health Pick 'Offended' by Questions About Stocks
Bernie Sanders speaks during the confirmation hearing for HHS secretary hopeful Rep. Tom Price.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Donald Trump's choice for health secretary declared himself to be "offended" by Sen. Elizabeth Warren's questions about his investments during Wednesday's Senate Health Committee hearing. Warren was one of numerous Democrats who pressed Rep. Tom Price about his stock transactions in health care companies, the Washington Post reports. Price, who will be grilled by the Senate Finance Committee next week, claimed he wasn't aware of his exact stock holdings and said everything he did was "ethical, transparent, and legal." In response to another question from Warren, he declined to say that he wouldn't cut Medicare or Medicaid funding, but he said he supported Trump's "insurance for everybody" promise, reports Politico.

Later in the hearing, Sen. Al Franken told Price: "It really begs credulity, sir when you say you did not know that you got a discount" on a stock purchase, reports Politico, which notes that Franken and Warren are emerging as leaders of Democratic resistance to Trump's policies. In another acrimonious hearing Wednesday, Scott Pruitt, Trump's pick for EPA chief, told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that his own opinion on climate change was "immaterial," the AP reports. He acknowledged, however, that in contrast to Trump's statements, he does not believe that climate change is "a hoax." (Trump's choice for education secretary talked about guns and bears during her Senate hearing Tuesday.)

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