Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, following on Baldwin’s questions, pressed Means on the times she has benefitted financially from medical companies whose products she promoted.
Murphy asked if she’s familiar with Federal Trade Commission policy requiring people recommending products online to disclose their financial connection to those companies.
Means said she is familiar. Murphy noted a “pending complaint” about her alleged failure to comply with that rule. Murphy said Means “routinely” violated this policy, and insisted that in the “majority” of her posts on social media, she failed to disclose her connection.
“That’s false,” Means said.
Murphy claimed Means had received partnership fees for a prenatal vitamin when Means posted on social media that she was simply a “fan.”
“It’s incorrect and it’s a false representation,” Means said of Murphy’s assertions, insisting she’s worked with the Office of Government Ethics to be in full compliance.
“I take it very seriously,” Means said. “Before, during and after, if I’m in office, I will be in full compliance with the Office of Government Ethics.”
Murphy disagreed.
“This seems systemic,” Murphy said. “It seems that in the majority of instances in which you were, as a medical professional, recommending a product, you were hiding the fact that you had a financial partnership. You seem to be in regular, willful violation of the FTC rules.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” Murphy said, adding that if a failure to disclose “inadvertently” has happened, she would rectify the situation.