Sen. Isakson Points out Al Franken Owns a Mutual Fund that Invests in Philip-Morris

Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) helped defend Rep. Tom Price during his confirmation hearing Wednesday, by noting that his most outspoken critic, Sen. Al Franken, owns stock in Philip-Morris, despite speaking out against tobacco companies.

Franken had earlier accused Price of engineering legislation to help a company in his portfolio. 

Here's an excerpt:

ISAKSON: “I want to reclaim my three minutes by just making a point. I respect everybody on this committee tremendously, I respect the nominee, but it is very important for us to all understand under the disclosure rules that we have and the way it operates, any of us could make the mistakes that are being alleged. I am sure Senator Franken had no idea that he owned part of Philip-Morris when he made a statement he made about tobacco companies, but he has a WisdomTree Equity Income fund investment that’s disclosed in his disclosure, which owns Phillip-Morris, so it is entirely possible for any of us to have somebody make an investment on our behalf and us not know where that money is invested because of the very way it works. I don’t say that to in anyway embarrass Mr. Franken, but to make a point that any one of us who have mutual funds or investment managers or people who do that, it is entirely possible for us not to know. And to try and to imply that someone had been obfuscating something or otherwise denying something that is a fact is just not the fair thing to do. And I just wanted to make that clear.”
FRANKEN: “This is different than mutual funds.”
ISAKSON: “It’s an investment in Philip-Morris.”