Republican senator Kelly Loeffler calls criticism of her controversial share dumping after secret coronavirus briefing a 'socialist attack' - despite her Republican primary opponent saying he was 'sickened'

Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler on Friday called the criticism of her stock sales a ‘socialist attack’ as she fights off a tough primary challenger in her bid for re-election.

‘This is a socialist attack,’ she told Fox News channel on Friday. ‘This is a political attack that is designed to distract from the issue at.’

Loeffler and her CEO husband were criticized after it came to light they sold around $2 million in stock ahead of the coronavirus pandemic, after she received a closed-door Senate briefing on the virus. She has maintained she did nothing wrong and said their stocks are handled by an investment company.

‘This is a socialist attack,’ Sen. Kelly Loeffler told Fox News channel on Friday when asked about her stock sales after getting a closed briefing on the coronavirus

The senator refused to address the issue further, telling Fox News: ‘We’ve taken extraordinary measures to take that off the table as an attack area, and we’re done with it and we’re moving on.’

Republican Congressman Doug Collins, who is challenging Loeffler in the June 9 GOP primary, said last month he was ‘sicken’ over the fact she sold off stock in the days before the coronavirus outbreak.

‘People are losing their jobs, their businesses, their retirements, and even their lives and Kelly Loeffler is profiting off their pain? I'm sickened just thinking about it,’ he tweeted on March 20.

Collins, who is close to President Donald Trump, has led the charge in criticizing Loeffler for the move. He was one of the president’s most prominent defenders during the impeachment inquiry.

‘Using your public office to make private profits while families lose everything is not the American Dream. Shame on you for saying it is,’ he tweeted on Friday in response to her claiming to be a victim of a ‘socialist attack.’

Earlier this month, Loeffler said she and her CEO husband Jeffrey Sprecher were liquidating their stocks after weeks of criticisms for the sales.

Loeffler, in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, argued she has done nothing wrong and is not required to sell but is doing it to end the 'distraction' it is causing.

'Although Senate ethics rules don't require it, my husband and I are liquidating our holdings in managed accounts and moving into exchange-traded funds and mutual funds. I will report these exiting transactions in the periodic transaction report I file later this month,' she wrote.

Sprecher is the chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange.

Loeffler is the wealthiest member of Congress. She was appointed to the Georgia Senate seat at the beginning of January after then-Sen. Johnny Isakson said he was resigning for health reasons. It is her first time holding political office.

In her op-ed, Loeffler said her investments are handled by a third-party and noted she and her husband had that arrangement in place long before she was appointed to the Senate as part of their roles as fortune 500 company executives.

'In financial services, there is always a risk of coming into contact with nonpublic material information, so the decision to separate ourselves from directing our investments—long before I was appointed to the Senate in January—was an easy one. It is part of what has enabled us to operate throughout our careers with the highest level of integrity and transparency,' she wrote.

She said her advisers would liquidate their holdings and the proceeds would be 'reinvested into ETFs and mutual funds.'

Her decision comes as the Justice Department is investigating stock sales by her and three other lawmakers: Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California.

All four senators have denied any wrong-doing but all came under fire for massive stock sell offs that came as the lawmakers were getting private briefings on the coronavirus.

Loeffler and Sprecher, sold $1 million to $2.49 million in February, according to disclosure statements, after a closed Senate briefing on the coronavirus. Additionally, they dumped holdings in retail stores that have been battered by the pandemic.

The revelation of the sell-off ignited calls for her resignation and potentially tanked her chances for re-election.

Lawmakers are prevented from using information they glean on Capitol Hill to buy and sell stocks, as outlined in the STOCK Act.