Rob Bresnahan, then a candidate for Pennsylvania's 8th U.S. Congressional District, speaks at a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, Aug. 17, 2024, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) has gone back on his campaign promise to ban congressional stock trading, and he plans to keep trading stocks himself, saying he will “lose money and go broke” if he stops trading.

During an interview with WVIA, NPR’s Northeastern Pennsylvania affiliate, released on Thursday, Bresnahan indicated that he will not stop trading stocks. Bresnahan, who claims that his stocks are traded by money managers, told Borys Krawczeniuk he will not order them to stop trading for fear of losing money in his accounts and “going broke.”

“And do what with it? Just leave it all in accounts, and just leave it there and go broke?” Bresnahan asked.

Bresnahan has a reported net worth of $69 million, according to the American Journal News.

In May, Bresnahan also promised to put his accounts into a blind trust to avoid conflicts of interest. The blind trust would allow an independent broker to trade Bresnahan’s assets on his behalf, and he would not be allowed to give this person advice or know how the person is investing. Bresnahan also told WVIA that he has not set up the blind trust yet because House ethics rules won’t allow him to tell the independent broker to avoid trading Chinese stocks.

“The ethics process is prehistoric and downright excruciating,” Bresnahan complained.

In response to Bresnahan’s interview, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Eli Cousin gave a scathing statement accusing Bresnahan of not caring about his constituents.

“Multi-millionaire Rob Bresnahan is full of s—,” Cousin said. “He campaigned on a promise to ban congressional stock trading, but is now saying that he must continue his prolific trading in order to prevent himself from going broke. He doesn’t care about his constituents – he only cares about his bottom line.”

Even though Bresnahan promised to ban members of Congress from stock trading before he got elected, and he introduced legislation in May to do that, the freshman lawmaker has made hundreds of stock transactions since taking office in January. In May, Bresnahan dumped his shares in Centene, the country’s largest Medicaid provider, just before voting to gut the social safety net program when he and 214 of his Republican colleagues approved President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.

Bresnahan had also previously promised to never vote for Medicaid cuts, despite voting for a bill that will slash the program by an estimated $911 billion over the next decade.