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Donald Trump has vowed to fight back against China and bring more manufacturing back to the U.S. Economists were already doubtful that his tariff plans would achieve that, and now his nomination of Daivd Perdue to be Ambassador to China confirms it. Perdue, in his own words, spent most of his career outsourcing American jobs to places overseas. China was one of the biggest recipients of the nationwide trend of shipping American jobs off. With Perdue, the proverbial fox will be guarding the henhouse. During his time in the Senate, David Perdue also used his power to enrich himself through countless questionable stock trades. Perdue faced multiple investigations for insider trading, some related to the COVID pandemic when Perdue bought shares in companies that stood to benefit as the Senate received briefings about the danger of the virus. Perdue is also a Trump loyalist who pushed his false election lies and supported a lawsuit to overturn the results. David Perdue is a big business executive whose career has been defined by shipping out American jobs and getting rich off of confidential information. He is the wrong choice to be our nation’s Ambassador to China. |
David Perdue On Outsourcing: “I Spent Most Of My Career Doing That.” According to POLITICO, " Yet during a controversial chapter in his record — a nine-month stint in 2002-03 as CEO of failed North Carolina textile manufacturer Pillowtex Corp. — Perdue said he was hired, at least in part, to cut costs by outsourcing manufacturing operations overseas. Perdue specialized throughout his career in finding low-cost manufacturing facilities and labor, usually in Asia. During a July 2005 deposition, a transcript of which was provided to POLITICO, Perdue spoke at length about his role in Pillowtex’s collapse, which led to the loss of more than 7,600 jobs. Perdue was asked about his 'experience with outsourcing,' and his response was blunt. 'Yeah, I spent most of my career doing that,' Perdue said, according to the 186-page transcript of his sworn testimony." [POLITICO, 10/4/14]
David Perdue Helped American Company Move Manufacturing Overseas
David Perdue Helped American Company Move Manufacturing Overseas. According to POLITICO, "According to the 2005 deposition, Perdue’s mission at Pillowtex was, in some measure, to shift portions of the company’s manufacturing operations to lower-cost foreign factories, especially in Asia. Perdue was also charged with overhauling its marketing programs." [POLITICO, 10/4/14]
David Perdue Faced Multiple Investigations Into His Potential Insider Trading. According to Politifact, "Perdue’s large volume of stock trades during his six years in office became the subject of a Justice Department probe into possible insider trading, according to the New York Times. The investigations into Perdue’s trades closed without any charges of wrongdoing, but authorities did not expressly clear or exonerate him." [Politifact, 12/4/20]
David Perdue Was Senate’s Most Active Stock Trader
David Perdue Was Senate’s Most Active Stock Trader Including Activity In Companies Associated With His Committee Assignments. According to the New York Times, “An examination of Mr. Perdue’s stock trading during his six years in office reveals that he has been the Senate’s most prolific stock trader by far, sometimes reporting 20 or more transactions in a single day. The Times analyzed data compiled by Senate Stock Watcher, a nonpartisan website that aggregates publicly available information on lawmakers’ trading, and found that Mr. Perdue’s transactions accounted for nearly a third of all senators’ trades reported in the past six years. His 2,596 trades, mostly in stocks but also in bonds and funds, roughly equal the combined trading volume of the next five most active traders in the Senate. The data also shows the breadth of trades Mr. Perdue made in companies that stood to benefit from policy and spending matters that came not just before the Senate as a whole, but before the committees and subcommittees on which he served.” [New York Times, 12/9/20]
January 2020: David Perdue Purchased Shares In PPE Maker The Same Day After Senate Received Briefing On Coronavirus Threat. According to Politifact, "Investment in PPE maker: On Jan. 24 — the same day that Trump administration health officials privately briefed senators on the threat posed by the coronavirus — Perdue bought shares worth as much as $65,000 in DuPont de Nemours, which supplies personal protective equipment used to avoid exposure to the coronavirus. Senate committee leaders called it an 'all-senator briefing,' but a Perdue campaign ad released Nov. 30 claimed Perdue did not attend. No official attendance record was kept, a Senate committee aide told us." [Politifact, 12/4/20]
2020: David Perdue Purchased Pfizer Stock After Warning Of Impacts Of COVID-19. According to Politifact, "Purchase of pharmaceutical stock: In early 2020, Perdue invested up to $245,000 in Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company, in multiple transactions around the same time that members of Congress began sounding the alarm that more should be done to address the spread of the virus, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, citing Senate financial disclosures. The New York Times also reported on Perdue’s Pfizer transactions, noting he made one of the purchases on the same day he issued a news release saying he had regularly attended briefings led by the coronavirus task force. " [Politifact, 12/4/20]
May 2020: David Perdue Announced His Financial Advisors Would Stop Making Trades On Most Individual Stocks After Controversy
May 2020: David Perdue Announced His Financial Advisors Would Stop Making Trades On Most Individual Stocks After Controversy. According to the New York Times, “In April, after questions were raised about stock trades that Mr. Perdue and other senators had made around the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, he abruptly sold virtually all of his stock holdings — between $3.2 million and $9.4 million worth. (Members of Congress report their transactions in ranges, so it is often impossible to pinpoint the exact dollar values.) In May, he announced that his advisers would no longer trade in individual stocks for his portfolio, with the exception of a few companies on whose boards he had previously served, including Cardlytics; the utility Alliant Energy; and Graphic Packaging, a paper-based-packaging provider.” [New York Times, 12/9/20]
November 2020: David Perdue Claimed Without Evidence There Were “Failures” In The 2020 Election. According to AJC, "Georgia’s two U.S. senators called on the state’s top elections official, a fellow Republican, to resign Monday in a shocking attempt to appease President Donald Trump and his supporters ahead of Jan. 5 runoffs for likely control of the U.S. Senate. U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue provided no evidence to back up claims of unspecified 'failures' with the November election that was overseen by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who said flatly that he’s not stepping down: 'It’s not going to happen.'" [AJC, 11/9/20]
David Perdue Supported Trump Lawsuit To Overturn 2020 Election. According to AJC, "President Donald Trump warned Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr not to rally other Republican officials against a long-shot Texas lawsuit seeking to toss out the state’s election results, according to several people with direct knowledge of the conversation. The roughly 15-minute phone call late Tuesday came shortly before U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue issued a joint statement saying they 'fully support' the improbable lawsuit asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reject election results in Georgia and three other battleground states that Trump lost." [AJC, 12/9/20]