Allegations that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr sold six- and seven-figure sums of stock ahead of the coronavirus outbreak is making for strange political bedfellows.
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, an outspoken left-wing lawmaker, said Thursday she agreed with Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s call for the resignation of Burr, a North Carolina Republican who faces questions about whether he used information gained from classified briefings to sell stock ahead of the coronavirus spread in the United States, which has included a stock market crash in the past two weeks.
“I am [100] with him on this,” Omar retweeted a post from Acyn Torabi describing a Carlson segment calling out Burr.
“Tucker Carlson calls for Senator Burr to resign and await prosecution for insider trading if he cannot provide a reasonable explanation for his actions,” the original tweet read. “He goes on to say it appears that Senator Burr betrayed his country in a time of crisis.”
I am ? with him on this ? https://t.co/Gbi3i2BagY
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 20, 2020
It was reported Thursday that Burr sold off up to almost $2 million in stocks a week before the stock market crashed due to coronavirus panic.
Burr, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sold the stock via at least 33 separate transactions on Feb. 13, a week before the crash. Those stocks have lost nearly a third of their value since.
On Feb. 7, Burr encouraged Americans to stay calm, saying the United States was “better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus.”
“He had inside information about what could happen to the country, which is now happening, but he didn’t warn the public,” Carlson said during his show. “He didn’t give a prime-time address. He didn’t go on television to sound the alarm. He didn’t even disavow an op-ed he’d written just 10 days before claiming America was ‘better prepared than ever for coronavirus.’ He didn’t do those things. Instead, what did he do? He dumped his shares in hotel stocks so he wouldn’t lose money, and then he stayed silent.”
A spokesman for Burr denied wrongdoing in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“Sen. Burr filed a financial disclosure form for personal transactions made several weeks before the U.S. and financial markets showed signs of volatility due to the growing coronavirus outbreak.”
Omar has been a vocal critic of Carlson in the past, dismissing him as a “racist fool” just last year.
