Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., on Newsmax Tuesday slammed President Joe Biden's veto overriding a bill to block Wall Street from using retirement savings to fund environmental activism — and accused two Democrat senators who supported the GOP-led legislation for playing politics.
In an interview on Newsmax's "National Report," Rosendale said Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana were merely making a "political move" in joining Republicans supporting the bill — knowing Biden would veto it.
"These guys have gone along with the radical Democrat agenda for the last two years, passing everything that Biden has wanted," Rosendale said of Manchin and Tester.
"And now all of a sudden they want a free pass by signing off on something that they knew [Biden] was going to veto and think that that's going to clear them of all the destruction that they've caused to the American economy and to our way of life," he fumed.
The bill cleared Congress March 1, when the Senate voted 50-46 to adopt a measure to overturn a Labor Department rule making it easier for fund managers to consider environmental, social, and corporate governance, or ESG, issues for investments and shareholder rights decisions, such as through proxy voting.
Rosendale declared "investments should be based on sound investments. That's it."
"When you start taking environmental, social governance and throwing that into the equation and forcing … institutions to use that instead of what's in the best interests, what is the best way for them to grow their company, then it's quite frankly, it's a violation of their fiduciary obligations," he argued.
The lawmaker also blasted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's pursuit of a case against former President Donald Trump for alleged payments made to adult movie actress Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.
"People are starting to lose confidence in these institutions, and it's troubling … if we do not have confidence in our institutions, that is the glue that holds our country together," he said.
"It really does look like it is nothing more than this vendetta against the former president, and it clearly is the weaponization of government," he added.
He also railed at the treatment of some defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the Capitol.
"We still have 20 people that are sitting in jail in Washington, D.C., that wrongfully entered the Capitol but have not even been able to post bond and get themselves out while they were awaiting their trial," he said.
"Meanwhile you've got people that committed crimes across this nation as part of Antifa … other radical groups burned property, destroyed property that were let free within hours after they had been detained by law enforcement."
"This double standard is not acceptable to the American people and it's causing problems," he asserted.
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