On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN International’s “Quest Means Business,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) argued that the failure to have appropriate regulation of companies like FTX isn’t due to FTX’s campaign contributions, it’s because “most” members of Congress “are still learning” about crypto and are “far from experts on finance, much less on next-generation finance or cryptocurrency.”
Host Richard Quest asked, “Congressman, the allegation of dirty money flowing through, it laps…at the door of Congress, and all politicians at different levels. Does Congress need to look at itself and say, were we too easily duped by lobbyists’ money, which has subsequently [been] found to be less than clean?”
Himes responded, “I don’t think that’s at play here. Now, there’s a whole other conversation to be had about the permeation of money in the U.S. political system. And yes, that’s a very, very good conversation. But look, a year ago, very few members of Congress had any idea what a crypto asset was and very few people around here today have particularly strong convictions. I think most people are still learning. Yes, you might have been visited by one of these companies or whatnot, but this is really technical stuff. And I’ve got to ask the question, just an hour ago, if Sam Bankman-Fried had come and testified in front of your committee, would people have been easy on him because he gave somebody $2,900 in campaign contributions? The answer to that is absolutely not. Now, I do want to have that other conversation about campaign finance reform, but in this particular instance, this is more a question of it being an immensely technical and esoteric topic with members of Congress being far from experts on finance, much less on next-generation finance or cryptocurrency.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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