Anger Builds in Congress Over Richard Burr's Coronavirus Stock Trade
Congress
Anger Builds in Congress Over Richard Burr’s Coronavirus Stock Trade
One lawmaker: “That just reeks of complete self-interest.” A new bill proposes prohibiting congresspeople from owning individual stocks. But is Burr being targeted for his Russia-inquiry evenhandedness?
By Abigail Tracy
April 2, 2020
In the aftermath of the current pandemic, there are likely to be two central questions: Who knew what when? And what did they do about it? One who knew early was Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina. By early February, senators on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which Burr chairs, were receiving daily briefings about the threat posed by the novel coronavirus. On February 7, he coauthored an op-ed that emphasized America’s preparedness for the coming wave: “The United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus,” he wrote. At the time it was hardly an unusual opinion among public officials.
What was unusual was what was happening out of the public eye. He told a group of high-dollar donors on February 27 that the novel coronavirus was no ordinary ailment: “It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history,” he said, according to a recording of Burr’s talk that was obtained by NPR. “It is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic.” And Burr, one of the less wealthy senators, unloaded between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his stock holdings in mid-February. First reported by ProPublica, Burr’s stock dump occurred well before the stock market plummeted.
The wide outrage in Congress over his actions hasn’t died down, and is liable to have consequences for both Senator Burr and how congresspeople can manage their financial assets while holding office, possibly leading to stricter rules. In Congress, after all, inside information is ubiquitous.
“In the case of Senator Burr, what was especially alarming, is that he seemed to be projecting confidence about the economy and the outlook for dealing with the coronavirus and at the same time was taking actions that suggested the exact opposite, which was to dump stocks that were negatively impacted by what’s been going on,” Castro, who stressed the importance of the ethics investigation into Burr’s trades, told me. “That just reeks of complete self-interest.”
more...
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/congress-coronavirus-richard-burr-stock-trades
= new reply since forum marked as read
by Trump and McConnell, as all he has to say is "maybe I should resign". And, the invisible hands of Trump and McConnell will become his shield. (Trump to McConnell: "If he goes, his replacement could be a DEM."
