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.

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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.