Rep. Ritchie Torres
@RepRitchie • 50,901 subscribers
Congressman for #NY15 (Bronx). Bronx native, product of public housing. Fighting every day for the essential borough. Official House account.
Shorts
Videos
I confronted SEC Chair Gary Gensler with a deceptively simple question: Is a Yankee ticket a security? Mr. Gensler claims that NFTs are securities. I see no legal difference between a Yankee ticket that offers access to a Yankee game and an NFT that offers access to an animated web series (as in the case of Stoner Cats). Mr. Gensler is misclassifying collectibles, art, and tickets as securities.
Rep. Ritchie Torres2,597,296 views • 1 year ago
I am calling upon every college and university to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which recognizes that Anti-Zionism is or can be a form of antisemitism. If you’re targeting a Jewish institution, like Hillel, simply for being Jewish, you’re guilty of antisemitism. If you’re making antisemitic threats or tropes that substitute the word ‘Zionist’ for ‘Jew’, you’re guilty of both Anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
Rep. Ritchie Torres2,141,834 views • 1 year ago
I intend to vote for sanctions against the ICC. Here’s why: The ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants against the leadership of Israel represents the weaponization of international law at its most egregious. The ICC has set a precedent for criminalizing self-defense: any country daring to defend itself against an enemy that exploits civilians as human shields will face persecution posing as prosecution. The ICC ignores the cause and context of the war. Israel did not initiate the war. The war was imposed upon Israel by the unbridged barbarism of Hamas on October 7th. Not only did Hamas wage war on Israel, causing the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, it carefully constructed a battlefield designed to maximize the loss of civilian life. None of that context seems to matter to the kangaroo court of the ICC, which cannot let facts get in the way of its ideological crusade against the Jewish State. The ICC should be sanctioned not for enforcing the law but for distorting it beyond recognition.
Rep. Ritchie Torres608,289 views • 1 year ago
I cross-examined U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler about the term 'investment contract', which is key to determining his authority over crypto. Gensler struggled to answer basic questions like whether an investment contract requires a contract. His evasions are deafening and damning.
Rep. Ritchie Torres995,873 views • 2 years ago
According to the Harvard-Harris poll, 79% of Americans favor Israel over Hamas—including 75% of Democrats and 81% of Republicans, making it overwhelmingly bipartisan. The Anti-Israel movement commands a greater following on Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok than it does in the real world. Stop treating the fringe as though it were mainstream.
Rep. Ritchie Torres495,264 views • 1 year ago
Jewish CUNY students were originally told not to hold a Rosh Hashanah celebration—not if their safety could not be guaranteed. Public safety should not be an excuse for denying religious liberty, which is a protected right under the First Amendment. Religious liberty should be a reason to guarantee public safety.
Rep. Ritchie Torres423,552 views • 1 year ago
The nature of Antisemitism is to scapegoat the Jewish People and the Jewish State for everything wrong in the world—no matter how tenuous the causal connection. Toward that end, the antisemites of Code Pink are blaming the Jewish State for the wildfires in California. The modus operandi of Antisemitism is slanderous scapegoating: when in doubt, blame the Jews.
Rep. Ritchie Torres305,383 views • 1 year ago
The term ‘digital asset security’ does not appear anywhere in any law enacted by Congress or in any rule promulgated by the SEC or in any decision rendered by the Supreme Court. It appears nowhere in the 2 million pages of the Federal Register. If it comes from neither statute nor rule, then where does it come from? The SEC invented the term out of thin air.
Rep. Ritchie Torres281,838 views • 1 year ago
Joseph Massad, who is an apologist for October 7th (calling it “astounding” and “incredible”), is going to teach a course on Zionism at Columbia University. What’s next at Columbia? David Duke teaching a course on antiracism? Why should US taxpayers subsidize ideological indoctrination that glorifies the mass murder, maiming, mutilation, rape, and abduction of Jews and Israelis?
Rep. Ritchie Torres199,885 views • 1 year ago
I cross-examined the SEC about its decision to order the destruction of digital art in violation of the First Amendment. When I asked Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw if art is protected expression under the First Amendment, she simply replied: “I am not an expert.”
Rep. Ritchie Torres198,460 views • 1 year ago
As I pointed out during a FSC hearing this week, members of Congress are elected by and accountable to the American people. We should be the ones deciding the future of regulating digital assets and other emerging technologies like cryptocurrency. Not unelected bureaucrats.
Rep. Ritchie Torres271,222 views • 3 years ago
The status quo of crypto regulation by enforcement has failed retail customers. Einstein once said: “If we do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result, that’s the definition of insanity.” It’s time for Congress to bring sanity to crypto regulation.
Rep. Ritchie Torres230,413 views • 2 years ago
SEC Chair Gary Gensler seems to believe that the process of tokenization magically transforms a collectible like a Pokemon card into a security. In the Howey case, the Supreme Court held that what matters is not the form but the substance—the economic reality—of a transaction. Gensler’s fixation on the tokenized form of a Pokemon card, rather than on the thing itself, flatly contradicts the Supreme Court’s reasoning in Howey.
Rep. Ritchie Torres114,674 views • 1 year ago