Posted on 03/20/2020 6:45:51 AM PDT by gattaca
Burr already let the country down by being AWOL and worse during the Russia collusion hoax that was perpetrated on the country. Mollie HemingwayBy Mollie Hemingway MARCH 20, 2020 Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr is being criticized by liberals and conservatives due to the news he sold up to $1.6 million in stock after receiving private briefings about the coronavirus but before the stock market began its sharp decline.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., tweeted of the North Carolina Republican: “Burr knew how bad it would be. He told the truth to his wealthy donors, while assuring the public that we were fine. THEN he sold off $1.6 million in stock before the fall. He needs to resign.”
Tucker Carlson told his audience Burr needs to resign and await prosecution if he’s unable to explain his actions. He said if the allegations are true, that Burr has betrayed his country in a time of crisis.
It’s up to the people of North Carolina to decide Burr’s fate. They elected him and are best suited to make that decision. But it’s the job of the Republicans in the Senate to pick chairmen and committee slots. And it is long past time for Burr to step aside as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Burr had already let the country down in that role. Under his leadership, the Senate Intelligence Committee was worse than useless at overseeing the intelligence community’s handling of the bizarre theory that Donald Trump was involved in an elaborate conspiracy with Russia to steal the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton. Burr helped perpetuate the idea that this was a reasonable and not insane theory, and took many actions to protect those who spied on the Trump campaign, leaked against Trump administration officials, and withheld evidence from the real congressional overseers on other Senate committees and in the House of the Representatives.
The only notable thing to have happened in that committee over the course of the Russia collusion hoax was the arrest of one of its staffers for lying regarding his leaks of information to reporters he was intimate with. Those reporters published information about the surveillance of Carter Page, a Trump campaign affiliate. Burr defended the staffer and begged that he not be imprisoned for his work in perpetuating the false and dangerous Russia collusion hoax.
When Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., could have used support for his brave and later vindicated work uncovering wrongdoing at the Department of Justice regarding the surveillance of Page, Burr instead joined Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and activists in the media in strongly defending the Department of Justice’s applications to spy on Page. He told media outlets he saw nothing wrong with the applications and that there were “sound reasons” to spy on Page. The media lapped this up and used it as a way to further bash Nunes and the few overseers who sounded the alarm about wrongdoing.
A Justice Department Inspector General later confirmed and elaborated on the problems Nunes and his House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence found in those applications to spy on Page, two of which were later deemed invalid and another two of which are still under review. The inspector general catalogued numerous errors and failures in the securing of those wiretaps, including the falsification of evidence and 16 other major problems and errors.
Burr wasn’t just missing in action on the FISA abuse battle, he was actually harming the effort to properly oversee the FISA process and hold the abusers of that process accountable. As Axios put it, “Nunes and Burr, both Republicans, have consistently been on opposing sides” of how to handle the conspiracy theory of treasonous collusion with Russia to steal the 2016 election.
The special counsel that was wound up, ostensibly, to investigate that theory was unable to find a single American who had colluded with Russia, much less anyone associated with the Trump campaign. Yet Burr was a strong defender of the limitless probe that did so much to hamper the domestic and foreign policy of the Trump administration.
It’s an understatement to say that Nunes and Burr are on opposing sides. They have a completely different view of what congressional oversight is. For Burr, it means running interference for the intelligence community if anyone asks too many questions. For Nunes, it means the review, monitoring, and supervision of the intelligence community.
The two also had a different perspective on the service they could provide Americans regarding Russia’s malignant actions in the 2016 election. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), under the leadership of Nunes, managed to release a comprehensive investigative report into Russia’s 2016 election meddling by March of 2018. Burr’s committee has put out piecemeal reports in recent months that haven’t even begun to address all the issues that the House Intel Committee managed to, although they always manage to spout Democratic Party lines, or at least are easily spun by the media as doing so.
HPSCI Republicans provided an overview of Russian influence campaigns in other countries, a detailed account of their campaign against the U.S. 2016 elections, analysis of the U.S. government’s reaction, debunking of theories of Trump-Russia collusion, analysis of leaks about the ICA, and specific recommendations to improve U.S. election security. The country is still waiting for Senate Intel to put out its findings on any Russian collusion. It is unexpected that the Senate Intel Committee will find a collusion storyline that differs from Nunes’s or Robert Mueller’s, if it ever comes out.
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence managed to put out its entire report while also tracking down who funded the Christopher Steele-invented dossier that got the conspiracy theory going. After court battles and much hard work, the world learned that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee had secretly funded the dossier as a campaign operation, hiding the funding by running it through a law firm. HPSCI got that information from a subpoena for Fusion GPS bank records and the ensuing court fight.
Burr was nowhere to be found in that fight. Instead, he spent that time as a media darling who provided helpful quotes to those who wanted to perpetuate the Russia collusion hoax and in general by running interference for the continued investigation of the Trump campaign.
Burr bragged that he decided to more or less let ranking member Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., be cochairman of the committee. In fact, Warner seemed to be running the show.Burr even defended Warner when text messages were leaked that showed Warner had secretly tried to arrange a back channel to Christopher Steele outside the knowledge of the committee. Warner said he didn’t want a paper trail of his communications with the Russian oligarch lobbyist he was contacting to make the connection. Burr covered for him.
Because of Burr’s complete abdication of responsibility to oversee an out-of-control intelligence community, the task was left to his House Intel Committee counterparts, the Senate Judiciary Committee when it was led by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee under Sen. Ron Johnson.
The Judiciary Committee is currently led by Sen. Lindsey Graham, who frequently goes on television to talk about bad actors he’s going to hold accountable some day. Previously, both of those Senate committees did some good work in getting information out about wrongdoings at various government agencies. Senate Intelligence, however, did nothing.
Under Burr, it was difficult to remember that Republicans actually controlled the Senate. It is a scandal that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell allowed him to hold this vitally important position for this long. It is inexcusable that he continue, even if there weren’t allegations he had profited from the briefings he received due to his position.
The American people could have used an ethical and responsible Senate Select Committee on Intelligence while the country was harmed by the peddling of the false and dangerous Russia collusion hoax. Some of that harm was caused by a media that uncritically took leaks from intelligence community bureaucrats. A lot of the harm was caused by the criminal behavior of the leakers themselves.
To date, nearly none have been held accountable. Burr is a big part of the reason they have not been held accountable. North Carolinians can decide if they want him as their senator, but no functioning Republican caucus should have him chairing a committee.
Burr is my Senator. Won’t be sorry to see him replaced by a conservative.
What a piece of crap! I hope he is charged with insider trading.
AND THE HOUSE? Did Democrat Schiff dump stock based on secret intel he had access to?
Adam Schiff is the head of the House intelligence committee, and has access to the government’s most highly classified information about threats to America’s security.
The intel committee was receiving daily coronavirus briefings, according to a Reuters story.
The stock market then began a sharp decline.
On Thursday, Schiff’s Senate counterpart, came under fire after NPR obtained a secret recording from Feb. 27, in which Intel chair Sen Burr gave a VIP group at the exclusive social club a much more dire preview of the economic impact of the coronavirus than what he had told the public.
“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,” his spokesperson said. “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.”
Many of the congressmen use a blind trust to manage their stock portfolios.
Loeffler said she didn’t know her stock was traded for three weeks after the fact.
Before these stories are broken, the reporters should find out all the facts. Outside of Loeffler (ie, her statement) I’ve not seen any mention of who actually made the trades.
This is terribly sloppy reporting.
Well they tend to jail Republicans, so maybe we will get lucky.
Reminiscent of a former Senator from New York who was involved in some cattle futures deal. But didn’t the Congress pass some kind of rule/law/provision for their special privileges on insider trading?
Dianne Feinstein did as well, AOC. Should she resign and be prosecuted, too?....................................
And these 'blind trusts' can see everything.............
Schiff is a Penlosi confidant----the two who ran the impeachment fiasco.
Congress' intel committees were receiving daily coronavirus briefings, according to a Reuters story.
The stock market then began a sharp decline.
==================================
TALKING POINTS
<><>Did Schiff and Penlosi sell off stock, cashing in BEFORE the public was aware of the crisis?
<><> did they fail to file the required financial transacion forms?
<><> did they file falsified transaction forms?
<><> who else did Schiff and Penlosi tell about the virus?
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Truth is, as I understand it, members of Congress EXEMPTED themselves from Insider Trading laws and Regulations years ago. How to you think that so many of these worthless Parasites became Multi-Millionaires in the first place? Because of the business savvy and acumen? Give me a break! LMAO!
All Burr said was that this government was prepared to deal with the crisis. He was correct. He never said it would all be rosey or stocks wouldn’t go down. I assume he has some sort of financial advisor who told him what to do. Sad to see everyone here wanting to give up the Senate.
And btw I hate Burr.
My fellow citizens of these United States of America: The republic has been overtaken by lying, deceitful, thieving, plundering, raping, murdering, arrogant criminals.
Yeah. The Doug Collins supporters jumped entirely too soon.
I’ve already made up my mind. I’m not voting for Collins.
I don’t like his personalty AT ALL.
Yesterday, I posted a comment about Finestein doing this in the past. Well apparently she did Insider BS again.
Dianne Feinstein, 3 Senate colleagues sold off stocks before coronavirus crash: Fox reports
DiFi, Burr among senators who dumped millions in shares right before coronavirus mauled marketSENATE STOCK SELLOFF
Tucker Carlson calls on Burr to explain reported $1.6M stock sale or resign
. Richard Burr, Kelly Loeffler sold millions in stock before coronavirus crippled markets, reports find.
Dianne Feinstein, + 3 Senate colleagues sold off stocks before coronavirus crash: Fox News reports:
DiFi, Burr among senators who dumped millions in shares right before coronavirus mauled market.
SENATE STOCK SELLOFF
Tucker Carlson calls on Burr to explain reported $1.6M stock sale or resign
Richard Burr, Kelly Loeffler sold millions in stock before coronavirus crippled markets, reports find.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dianne-feinstein-3-senate-colleagues-sold-off-stocks-before-coronavirus-crash-reports
Dianne Feinstein, 3 Senate colleagues sold off stocks before coronavirus crash: reports. By Dom Calicchio | Fox News.
I completely agree with AOC on this point, Good for her for making a stink about this.
In our current state, I doubt any politician can survive this scandal. I’ll be the first to ask, if Johnson and Burr resign will democrat governors replace them?
These people sell stock and buy it back. Nothing unusual. In fact, common sense at that point. It's not like they were the only ones.
Exactly. If stocks were sold by financial advisors acting independently, they acted on the same information I was hearing everyday on Fox Business. These stories are just an effort to flip the Senate.
NO ONE can predict the markets. I don’t have the time to explain that but it’s based on long experience. You think it was so certain the market would go down? It’s never certain.
Please, BISH.
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