Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said Friday his Republican colleague in the Senate, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) “owes North Carolinians an explanation” for allegations he engaged in insider training after receiving classified briefings on the Coronavirus pandemic.
Given the circumstances, Senator Burr owes North Carolinians an explanation. His self-referral to the Ethics Committee for their review is appropriate, there needs to be a professional and bipartisan inquiry into this matter, which the Ethics Committee can provide. (1/2)
— Senator Thom Tillis (@SenThomTillis) March 20, 2020
Rarely does a state’s junior senator publicly call out that state’s senior senator, especially when both are members of the same political party. Tillis was elected in 2014, and is up for re-election in 2020. First elected in 2004, Burr is up for re-election in 2022.
Two polls of the 2020 North Carolina Senate race between Tillis and likely Democrat challenger Cal Cunningham conducted in February show the contest is very close. An East Carolina University Poll shows Tillis with a 2 point lead, while an NBC News/Marist College Polls shows Cunningham with a 5 point lead.
Tillis’s tweet came shortly after Burr requested earlier in the day that the Senate Ethics Committee initiate an investigation into allegations that he engaged in insider trading based upon information provided to him in classified briefings on the Coronavirus pandemic.
“I relied solely on public news reports to guide my decision regarding the sale of stocks on February 13,” Burr said in a statement posted in on his Twitter account Friday morning.
“Understanding the assumption many could make in hindsight however, I spoke this morning with the chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee and asked him to open a complete review of the matter with full transparency,” the statement concluded.
My statement in response to reports about recent financial disclosures: pic.twitter.com/J4kye5a4ok
— Richard Burr (@SenatorBurr) March 20, 2020
Burr’s request for a Senate Ethics Committee investigation came after press reports on Thursday that he and three other U.S. Senators — Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), and Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK)–sold millions of dollars in their stock portfolio shortly before the stock market plunged but after they received classified briefings on the status of the Coronavirus pandemic.
As Breitbart News reported:
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) unloaded upwards of $1.56 million in stock after receiving confidential briefings regarding the outbreak of the Coronavirus.
Burr, who is the senior senator from North Carolina and plans to retire in 2022, dumped thousand of dollars worth of stock on Feb. 13—less than a week before the stock market sharply dropped because of the coronavirus pandemic. The senator’s timely decision to sell, which was first reported by ProPublica, netted him between over $580,000 and $1.56 million.
Much of those shares are now worth a fraction of their price when Burr opted to sell. For instance, the prior investment Burr had in Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, which was worth upwards of $150,000, is now valued at two-thirds that price. Similarly, the nearly $100,000 worth of stock in Extended Stay America that Burr disposed of in February is now estimated to be worth over 50 percent less.
Those transactions, 29 in total, that Burr conducted came as the intelligence committee was receiving daily briefings on the spread of the coronavirus. During February, in particular, Burr and his colleagues on Capitol Hill were closely monitoring the situation unfolding.
On his Fox News Channel program Thursday night, Tucker Carlson singled out Burr and called on him to resign:
“You may have seen news reports this afternoon that chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee sold more than a million dollars in stock in mid-February after learning about how devastating the Chinese coronavirus could be. He had inside information about what could happen to our country, which is now happening,” Carlson said. “But he didn’t warn the public. He didn’t give a primetime 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 any of those things,” he continued. “Instead, what did he do? He dumped his shares in hotel stocks so he wouldn’t lose money, and then he stayed silent. Maybe there is an honest explanation for what he did. If there is, he should share it with the rest of us immediately. Otherwise, he must resign from the Senate and face prosecution for insider trading. There is no greater moral crime than betraying your country in a time crisis, and that appears to be what happened.”
Sen. James Lanford (R-OK), chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, had not yet commented publicly on Burr’s request as of late Friday morning, The New York Post reported at noon ET Friday and The Hill reported at 11:00 a.m. ET Friday.
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