GOP senator shared coronavirus info with wealthy donors

North Carolina’s Republican Sen. Richard Burr had key information about the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) three weeks ago. This information was not shared with the general public or his broader constituents, however, and was only supplied to wealthy donors at a posh “luncheon” in Washington, D.C.

In a secret audio recording obtained by National Public Radio’s Washington Investigative Correspondent Tim Mak, Burr can be heard relaying information about the severity of the Coronavirus well before even the White House was coming clean about the potential pandemic and resulting panic.

Warning only North Carolina’s business elite, Burr said:

There’s one thing that I can tell you about this: It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history. It’s probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic.

The upper crust luncheon was organized by the Tar Heel Circle, a self-professed non-partisan organization of organized capital interests comprised of the corporate and business class—North Carolina’s owners, employers and political leadership.

More at Law and Crime.   Despicable.

Addendum from an article at The Daily Kos:

Now ProPublica is reporting that Burr engaged in a 29-transaction stock selling spree on Feb. 13, two weeks before even that private admission. The stocks Burr got rid of were worth between $0.5-1.5 million dollars, a significant percentage or possibly even a majority of his total net worth.

Burr, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, is one of the "Gang of 8"—the eight lawmakers in the House and Senate briefed on the most sensitive government secrets. As such, Burr was likely privy to information about COVID-19 spread and preparedness efforts that even most lawmakers may not have been briefed on.

Addendum #2 from the NewYork Post:

A wealthy Georgia Senator is reportedly the second member of Congress to have dumped massive shares of stocks following a private, chamber-wide meeting on the new coronavirus.

Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), whose husband is the chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, began selling off more than a million dollars in stocks on the same day as the closed-door Senate meeting on Friday, Jan. 24...

Even after allegedly dumping her holdings, Loeffler bashed Democrats for playing up the threats of the virus.

“Democrats have dangerously and intentionally misled the American people on #Coronavirus readiness,” she tweeted in late February. “Here’s the truth: @realDonaldTrump & his administration are doing a great job working to keep Americans healthy & safe.”

Scum.

Addendum #3:  AOC has called for the senator to resign.