'This is unacceptable': AOC, Ted Cruz and others side with retail investors, slam Robinhood and Wall Street amid GameStop mania

·Senior Editor

January 28, 2021 at 12:19 PM·2 min read

The battle between the financial establishment and small individual investors is heating up, and the situation is already becoming political — in some cases providing some interesting common ground.

The anger is bipartisan. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), Rep Ro Khanna (D., Calif.), Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and even Donald Trump Jr., eldest son of the former president, have all called out the situation as unfair for individual investors.

As Robinhood and other brokerages halted buying of Gamestop (GME), AMC (AMC) and other stocks Thursday, only allowing users to sell their positions, a wave of anger — and accusations of hypocrisy toward Robinhood — washed over parts of the trading community.

Hedge funds could buy and sell, but on many platforms, retail investors could only sell.

“This is unacceptable,” AOC tweeted on the news. “Fully agree,” Ted Cruz responded.

In a statement Thursday, Democrat Rep. Ro Khannna of California also supported the small investors’ rights to buy.

“This entire episode has demonstrated the power of technology to democratize access to American financial institutions, ultimately giving far more people a say in our economic structures,” he wrote. “This also showed how the cards are stacked against the little guy in favor of billionaire Wall Street Traders.”

“While retail trading in some cases, like on Robinhood, blocked the purchasing of GameStop, hedge funds were still allowed to trade the stock,” Khanna added.

When @AOC and @DonaldJTrumpJr are on the same side you know you fucked up @RobinhoodApp pic.twitter.com/y15FBqrUu9
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) January 28, 2021

In his statement Khanna called for “more regulation and equality in the markets” and said that the country needs access and equity “across every sector of our economy.”

Khanna said he was fed up with “hedge fund billionaires” who “treat the stock market like their personal playground, then taking their ball home as soon as they lose.”

Fully agree. 👇 https://t.co/rW38zfLYGh
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 28, 2021

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) has also taken an interest into the week’s action, issuing a statement similar to Khanna’s, but before the issue of retail access came about.

How regulators would address the situation is unclear, but the SEC and the White House have said they were monitoring the situation.

Ethan Wolff-Mann is a writer at Yahoo Finance focusing on consumer issues, personal finance, retail, airlines, and more. Follow him on Twitter @ewolffmann.

CBS News
Can JonBenét Ramsey's murder be solved by 7 items of evidence?
Her father John Ramsey said DNA testing on items like a blanket and a rope could point to the killer.
CBS News
JonBenét Ramsey murder: The ransom note and other evidence
A closer look at what police found at the Ramsey family's Boulder, Colorado, home following the murder of their 6-year-old daughter JonBenét.
CBS News
Who killed JonBenét Ramsey? Her dad believes DNA could reveal killer
A look back at how "48 Hours" covered the 1996 Christmastime murder of JonBenét Ramsey in 2002, and what her father John Ramsey says about the unsolved Colorado case nearly 28 years later.
NBC News
Trump's plan to end daylight savings: Will 4:30 a.m. be the new American daybreak?
Morning in America could, someday soon, be earlier than ever imagined.
Associated Press
China says US is 'playing with fire' after latest military aid for Taiwan
The Chinese government protested Sunday the latest American announcements of military sales and assistance to Taiwan, warning the United States that it is “playing with fire.” U.S. President Joe Biden authorized Saturday the provision of up to $571 million in Defense Department material and services and in military education and training for Taiwan. Separately, the Defense Department said Friday that $295 million in military sales had been approved.
TODAY
Here’s what to do if you win the Mega Millions jackpot
The next drawing for the Mega Millions jackpot of $8325 million will take place December 20 Here's what to do if you win.
Associated Press
Isolated Chicago communities secure money for a coveted transit project before Trump takes office
Adella Bass dropped her in-person college classes because it was just too hard to get there from the far South Side of Chicago, where the city's famous elevated train doesn't run. The Biden administration notified Congress last week that it would commit $1.9 billion toward a nearly $5.7 billion project to add four new L stations on the South Side, the Chicago system’s largest expansion project in history. The pledge, which the Federal Transit Administration is expected to formally sign before President Joe Biden leaves office in January, essentially locks in current and future funding.
AFP
Minorities fear targeted attacks in post-revolution Bangladesh
For generations, the small Hindu temple outside the capital in Muslim-majority Bangladesh was a quiet place to pray -- before arsonists ripped open its roof this month in the latest post-revolution unrest."My son saw the flames and doused them quickly," said temple custodian Ratan Kumar Ghosh, 55, describing how assailants knew to avoid security cameras, so they tore its tin roof open to enter.
Associated Press
Winter is hitting Gaza and many Palestinians have little protection from the cold
Winter is hitting the Gaza Strip and many of the nearly 2 million Palestinians displaced by the devastating 14-month war with Israel are struggling to protect themselves from the wind, cold and rain. There is a shortage of blankets and warm clothing, little wood for fires, and the tents and patched-together tarps families are living in have grown increasingly threadbare after months of heavy use, according to aid workers and residents. Shadia Aiyada, who was displaced from the southern city of Rafah to the coastal area of Muwasi, has only one blanket and a hot water bottle to keep her eight children from shivering inside their fragile tent.
CBS News
NYPD chief resigns amid sexual misconduct claims
NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey has resigned following allegations of sexual misconduct, the department says.
Associated Press
As flooding becomes a yearly disaster in South Sudan, thousands survive on the edge of a canal
Long-horned cattle wade through flooded lands and climb a slope along a canal that has become a refuge for displaced families in South Sudan. “Too much suffering,” said Bichiok Hoth Chuiny, a woman in her 70s. Such flooding is becoming a yearly disaster in South Sudan, which the World Bank has described as “the world’s most vulnerable country to climate change and also the one most lacking in coping capacity."
CNN
Two US Navy pilots eject safely over Red Sea after fighter jet shot down in apparent friendly fire incident
Two US Navy pilots ejected safely after their fighter jet was shot down over the Red Sea on Saturday in an apparent friendly fire incident, US Central Command said in a statement.
AFP
Iraq's prohibition zeal threatens Baghdad's boozy subculture
The smell of dampness rises through the dust at a private club in central Baghdad, one of many shut in a crackdown on alcohol sales in Iraq.Several private "social" clubs that have operated in Baghdad for decades were sent official letters in November forbidding them from manufacturing and serving alcoholic beverages.
Associated Press
Two US Navy pilots shot down over Red Sea in apparent 'friendly fire' incident, US military says
Two U.S. Navy pilots were shot down Sunday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the U.S military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of America targeting Yemen's Houthi rebels. The U.S. military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the time, though the U.S. military’s Central Command did not elaborate on what their mission was and did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press.
AFP
Tunisia women herb harvesters struggle with drought and heat
On a hillside in Tunisia's northwestern highlands, women scour a sun-scorched field for the wild herbs they rely on for their livelihoods, but droughts and rising temperatures are making it ever harder to find the precious plants.Wildfires fuelled by drought and rising temperatures have ravaged these woodlands, further diminishing the natural resources that women like Soudani depend on.
AFP
Trump threatens to take back control of Panama Canal
Incoming US president Donald Trump on Saturday slammed what he called unfair fees for US ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand control of the waterway be returned to Washington.He continued that if Panama could not ensure "the secure, efficient and reliable operation" of the channel, "then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question."
Politico
Trump taps billionaire Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta as Italy ambassador
Fertitta has never held political office but is a longtime GOP donor — including to Trump’s Save America PAC.
Associated Press
The water was their livelihood. Now Thailand's sea nomads work to preserve a vanishing way of life
When Hook was a child, he started his days by jumping off the boat that his family lived on and into the ocean. Now Hook, whose full name is Suriyan Klathale, lives on land like the rest of his community, a people known as the Moken. The recollections of his childhood, which many Moken of his generation still have, are mostly just memories.
Associated Press
Pickup truck driver killed by police after driving through Texas mall and injuring 5
A pickup truck driver fleeing police careened through the doors of a JCPenney store in Texas and continued through a busy mall, injuring five people before he was fatally shot by officers, authorities said. The truck crashed into the department store in Killeen, about 68 miles (109 kilometers) north of the state capital Austin, around 5:30 p.m. Saturday and continued into the building, striking people as it went, Sgt. Bryan Washko of the Texas Department of Public Safety said in an evening news briefing. The chase began around 5 p.m. on Interstate 14 in Belton, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Killeen, after authorities received calls about an erratic driver in a black pickup, Ofelia Miramontez of the Killeen Police Department said.
Reuters
Trump says he might demand Panama hand over canal
President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday accused Panama of charging excessive rates for use of the Panama Canal and said that if Panama did not manage the canal in an acceptable fashion, he would demand the U.S. ally hand it over. In an evening post on Truth Social, Trump also warned he would not let the canal fall into the "wrong hands," and he seemed to warn of potential Chinese influence on the passage, writing the canal should not be managed by China. It also underlines an expected shift in U.S. diplomacy under Trump, who has not historically shied away from threatening allies and using bellicose rhetoric when dealing with counterparts.

Latest Stories