Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who came under fire after dropping at least $1.2 million in stocks after a closed-door Senate briefing in January, said Friday that the criticism she got was a "socialist attack" after she came to Washington to defend capitalism.
"This is a political attack that is designed to distract from the issue at hand and to use this outbreak to play politics," the Georgia Republican, who took office in January, said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "We have addressed this and taken extraordinary measures to make sure that we can't be attacked for our success."
"This gets at the very heart of why I came to Washington, to defend free enterprise, to defend capitalism," said Loeffler. "This is a socialist attack."
She added that she has been "focused solely on working for Georgians" for "seven days a week around the clock," and that is why she stepped out of the private sector when she was appointed to replace retiring Sen. Johnny Isakson.
Loeffler said earlier this month she and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, the chief executive of Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, are liquidating their investment portfolio after criticism of their stock trades amid the coronavirus outbreak.
She is running against Rep. Doug Collins, R-Georgia, to keep her Senate seat in a Nov. 3 nonpartisan primary.
Fox News' Sandra Smith asked Loeffler if she and her husband had gone through with liquidating the stocks, and she confirmed she had done that, and she's been "very open" about answering all questions about the transactions.