- GOP Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina unloaded hundreds of thousands of dollars in stocks after publicly downplaying the enormous risk of the novel coronavirus, ProPublica reported.
- According to the investigation, Burr dumped between $582,029 and $1.56 million in holdings on February 13, shortly after reassuring the public that the US was well prepared to respond to the disease.
- The US "is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus, in large part due to the work of the Senate Health Committee, Congress, and the Trump Administration," Burr wrote on February 7.
- NPR also recently revealed that it had obtained a recording featuring Burr raising dire concerns about the coronavirus to members of a private Washington club.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina unloaded hundreds of thousands of dollars in stocks shortly after publicly downplaying the enormous risk of the novel coronavirus, ProPublica reported.
According to the investigation, Burr dumped between $582,029 and $1.56 million in holdings shortly after reassuring the public that the US was well prepared to respond to the disease.
ProPublica's report comes hours after NPR revealed that it had obtained a recording featuring Burr raising dire concerns about the coronavirus to members of a private Washington club.
"There's one thing I can tell you about this," Burr reportedly said in the recording. "It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything we have seen in recent history. It's probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic.
"Every company should be cognizant of the fact that you may have to alter your travel," Burr continued. "You may have to look at your employees and judge whether the trip they're making to Europe is essential."
Burr is the chairman of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee, which has access to the federal government's most classified and sensitive information. According to Reuters, Burr's committee was getting daily briefings on the threat of the coronavirus around the time he dumped his stock.
But Burr struck a markedly different tone in public.
In a February 7 op-ed for Fox News, Burr - along with fellow Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, of Tennessee - acknowledged that "Americans are rightfully concerned about the coronavirus" at a time when the number of cases in China were still skyrocketing.
The senators also wrote, "Thankfully, the United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus, in large part due to the work of the Senate Health Committee, Congress, and the Trump Administration."
In a statement to ProPublica, a spokesperson for Burr said: "Senator 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. As the situation continues to evolve daily, he has been deeply concerned by the steep and sudden toll this pandemic is taking on our economy."