Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 190
Trump Is Everywhere
Sources close to President Trump tell ABC News that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) needs to resign after reports he dumped millions of dollars of stock after private briefings on the coronavirus pandemic.
Tucker Carlson called for Burr “to resign and await prosecution for insider trading” while adding he betrayed his country in a time of crisis.
The Mueller report says that Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) “appeared to brief the White House counsel’s office about the targets of the FBI’s Russia investigation in March 2017,” CNN reports.
The report states that FBI Director James Comey briefed the Gang of Eight — the Intelligence Committee and congressional leaders — about the investigation on March 9, 2017.
The week after, the White House counsel’s office was briefed by Burr on the “existence of 4-5 targets.”
“It’s a loud message to everybody that is interviewed by our committee, regardless of where that prosecution comes from: If you lie to us, we’re going to go after you.”
— Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), quoted by Roll Call, on Michael Cohen’s guilty plea for lying to Congress.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) told the Associated Press that he doesn’t think the committee should rush to wrap up its Russia investigation, saying “the worst thing we can do is to prematurely try to end” the probe.
“He says the panel still has a handful of people to interview behind closed doors and some who they may want to interview again, though he isn’t making any commitments on bringing witnesses forward publicly.”
Said Burr: “Nothing in this town stays classified or secret forever. And at some point somebody’s going to go back and do a review. And I’d love not to be the one that chaired the committee when somebody says, ‘well, boy, you missed this.’ So we’ve tried to be pretty thorough in how we’ve done it.”
He added: “If the intent is to have a show trial, I’m not a participant.”
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) told CNN “he believed there were ‘sound reasons’ for judges to approve the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant on former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page, in yet another break between the Republican leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees.”
“Burr’s comments once again put him at odds with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, who spearheaded the memo on FISA abuses.”
The Senate Intelligence Committee has reached no conclusion on whether anyone around President Trump was part of a Russian effort to influence the 2016 presidential election, the New York Times reports.
Said Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC): “The issue of collusion is still open.”
“Mr. Burr had expressed a desire this summer to conclude the probe by the year’s end. But on Wednesday, he all but conceded that with so many avenues of investigation still open that would not be possible.”
Bloomberg reports the panel “has hit a wall” in its investigation of an unverified “dossier” purporting to have compromising information on Trump because former British spy Christopher Steele, who compiled the report, hasn’t agreed to be interviewed.
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), “the initially reluctant but now determined leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election, said the investigation had expanded beyond its original scope based on new evidence, but he hoped to complete it this year to allow Congress to take steps to prevent future efforts at tampering by Moscow,” the New York Times reports.
Said Burr: “What continues this investigation are the names of individuals that we didn’t know at the time, the documents that we weren’t aware of, the communications, the cables, the emails, the phone logs of individuals that we wouldn’t have thought then that we needed to interview or to look at their records.”
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) said that the Senate “probably won’t reach a deal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act when it returns from a recess next week, in a stark assessment of the party’s health-care prospects,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Burr: “It’s unlikely that we will get a health-care deal.”
He added that the House-passed GOP health plan was “dead on arrival,” and that “I don’t see a comprehensive health-care plan this year.”
“If Hillary Clinton becomes president, I am going to do everything I can do to make sure four years from now, we still got an opening on the Supreme Court.”
— Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), quoted by CNN.
“Republicans are increasingly nervous about the Senate race in North Carolina, where Senator Richard Burr finds himself at sea in a year when some party insiders say a perfect storm may be gathering for Tar Heel State Democrats,” National Review reports.
“Burr faces Deborah Ross, a former state senator, in a race that few Republicans even considered competitive several months ago. Ross was not a top recruit, entering the race only after other Democratic hopefuls passed, and Burr — the well-liked chairman of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee — seemed to have little to worry about. But with less than three months to go until election day, Burr has barely begun campaigning, and it’s increasingly clear that his reelection is threatened by two forces beyond his control: Donald Trump and Pat McCrory, the unpopular Republican Governor who’s also up for reelection this year.”
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) “cast a ballot during the the early voting period for the North Carolina primary after going to a polling place without an acceptable form of identification,” the Raleigh News & Observer reports.
Burr cast a provisional ballot and filled out a “reasonable impediment” form.
Said a spokesman: “Sen. Burr discovered he lost his ID when he arrived at the polling location, but he went out and got a new drivers license.”
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) told supporters at a campaign fundraiser for his own re-election that he would vote for Sen. Bernie Sanders for president before Sen. Ted Cruz, the AP reports.
“Burr did not appear to be joking, said the person, who demanded anonymity to discuss the private gathering.”
A new Public Policy Polling survey in North Carolina finds Sen. Richard Burr’s re-election outlook remains stable: He has an approval rating in the low 30s danger zone, but leads of 6-12 points against his most mentioned potential Democratic opponents who are either unknown or unpopular.
Burr leads Treasurer Janet Cowell (D) 44% to 38%, former Senator Kay Hagan (D) 50% to 43%, Anthony Foxx (D) 45% to 36%, and Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines (D) 45% to 33%.
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) “kicked off fundraising for his 2016 re-election campaign with an event in Washington Wednesday night that brought in more than $1 million,” the Raleigh News & Observer reports.
“There was speculation in Washington that Burr might not be running because he only had $720,000 cash on hand in the latest campaign finance filing. But Burr recently announced a team of veteran political operatives as his 2016 campaign staff.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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