GOP Sen. Richard Burr's response to coronavirus insider-trading reports ranges from weak denial to 'lol'

Sen. Richard Burr
(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, responded Thursday night to two damaging reports showing his bifurcated public-private responses to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

First, NPR News reported that Burr had issued a dire warning about the coronavirus at a Feb. 27 private luncheon in North Carolina at the same time he was publicly more upbeat about America's preparedness for a pandemic. Then, ProPublica examined Burr's new financial disclosure forms and found that he sold between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his stock holdings in 33 separate transactions on Feb. 13, his largest stock selling day in at least 14 months. The stock market has since plummeted about 30 percent.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.