Chairman Burr is no longer "Chairman" Burr...
First came news last night that the FBI confiscated his phone. Now today he steps down from his position as Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee...
"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Thursday that Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) is stepping down from his position as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee pending an investigation into possible insider trading.
Why it matters: The news comes one day after reports that the FBI seized Burr's phone as part of the investigation. Burr, who had access to classified briefings about the coronavirus, dumped between $582,029 and $1.56 million in March just prior to the market crash. He has denied wrongdoing.
The big picture: Burr was hit with a federal lawsuit in late March after ProPublica revealed his stock trading activity. The Department of Justice began an inquiry into Burr's stock transactions in late March in coordination with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
I'm thinking this is going to have large repercussions in Nov, compared to what happened with similar financial crimes accusations against Collins and Hunter in 2018, when both were re-elected despite being under investigation...
First off Collins and Hunter were local elections- House races in gerrymandered Districts, who portrayed themselves as "victims of anti-Trump forces". And they were in Blue states, where voters were already going to vote overwhelmingly for Dems. No real statewide implications...
But imo this hurts Trump and the GOP in NC with people who count- Independents and moderate Republicans. First off Burr will not face voters, but Trump and Tillis will.Just saw a Kemp commissioned internal poll for Ga which showed people who voted FOR Kemp were evenly split on Trump/Biden and GOP/Dem votes for Senate. (Discussed in Ga thread- here's the link)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/georgia-election-trump-biden-level-221351091.html
Now NC is already more purple than Ga, so that poll in Ga likely spells bad news for Trump in NC as well. In addition, polling seems to show Tillis already slightly behind against James, who is a very strong Dem candidate in NC. My theory is that Tillis becomes the target of voters who want to show their frustration/anger towards Burr (but can't), so there is an anti-GOP backlash among Independent-oriented voters.
In addition, the difference between Burr and those House races is that his accusations revolve around a serious, emotional issue- the response to COVID. For people who are already angry at Trump for what we view as his incompetency, the investigation into Burr just brings all that to the forefront.
It's going to be a huge issue for voters in Ga with Loeffler's involvement, and now I think it becomes an unforeseen issue for the GOP in NC since they were counting on the fact that Burr wasn't running to keep it in the background... Now it becomes front-page news in NC where 538 polling from April/May shows Biden with small 3-5 pt, but consistent leads...
First came news last night that the FBI confiscated his phone. Now today he steps down from his position as Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee...
"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Thursday that Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) is stepping down from his position as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee pending an investigation into possible insider trading.
Why it matters: The news comes one day after reports that the FBI seized Burr's phone as part of the investigation. Burr, who had access to classified briefings about the coronavirus, dumped between $582,029 and $1.56 million in March just prior to the market crash. He has denied wrongdoing.
The big picture: Burr was hit with a federal lawsuit in late March after ProPublica revealed his stock trading activity. The Department of Justice began an inquiry into Burr's stock transactions in late March in coordination with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
- His brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, dumped up to $280,000 in shares on the same day as the senator, according to more documents published by ProPublica.
- Burr claims he sold his stocks because he "closely followed CNBC's daily health and science reporting out of its Asia bureaus at the time." He asked the Senate Ethics Committee in March to review his sell-off.
- NPR later reported that Burr told a private luncheon of constituents that same day that the coronavirus is "much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history."
I'm thinking this is going to have large repercussions in Nov, compared to what happened with similar financial crimes accusations against Collins and Hunter in 2018, when both were re-elected despite being under investigation...
First off Collins and Hunter were local elections- House races in gerrymandered Districts, who portrayed themselves as "victims of anti-Trump forces". And they were in Blue states, where voters were already going to vote overwhelmingly for Dems. No real statewide implications...
But imo this hurts Trump and the GOP in NC with people who count- Independents and moderate Republicans. First off Burr will not face voters, but Trump and Tillis will.Just saw a Kemp commissioned internal poll for Ga which showed people who voted FOR Kemp were evenly split on Trump/Biden and GOP/Dem votes for Senate. (Discussed in Ga thread- here's the link)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/georgia-election-trump-biden-level-221351091.html
Now NC is already more purple than Ga, so that poll in Ga likely spells bad news for Trump in NC as well. In addition, polling seems to show Tillis already slightly behind against James, who is a very strong Dem candidate in NC. My theory is that Tillis becomes the target of voters who want to show their frustration/anger towards Burr (but can't), so there is an anti-GOP backlash among Independent-oriented voters.
In addition, the difference between Burr and those House races is that his accusations revolve around a serious, emotional issue- the response to COVID. For people who are already angry at Trump for what we view as his incompetency, the investigation into Burr just brings all that to the forefront.
It's going to be a huge issue for voters in Ga with Loeffler's involvement, and now I think it becomes an unforeseen issue for the GOP in NC since they were counting on the fact that Burr wasn't running to keep it in the background... Now it becomes front-page news in NC where 538 polling from April/May shows Biden with small 3-5 pt, but consistent leads...
