Sen. Richard Burr was heard on a leaked tape giving early warning on the coronavirus to rich donors as Trump downplayed the situation
“It’s going to disappear. One day, It’s like a miracle. It will disappear,” the president said then, before adding, “it could get worse before it gets better. It could maybe go away. We’ll see what happens.”
On that same day, Burr attended a luncheon held at a social club called the Capitol Hill Club. And he delivered a much more alarming message.
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“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,” he said, according to a secret recording of the remarks obtained by NPR. “It is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic.”
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In attendance, according to a copy of the RSVP list obtained by NPR, were dozens of invited guests representing companies and organizations from North Carolina. And according to federal records, those companies or their political committees donated more than $100,000 to Burr’s election campaign in 2015 and 2016.
Burr is not running for reelection in 2022, but even in the face of a pandemic that could kill a million or more Americans, Republicans are too afraid of Trump to speak publicly and tell the truth about the greatest public health crisis that this nation has faced in a century.
The idea that rich donors got a three-week head start on preparing for coronavirus over the rest of the country is appalling. Sen. Burr and other Republicans should have been issuing the warning loudly and publicly to all Americans whether or not they had donated to their campaign.
As Trump was lying to viewers on Fox News, Sen. Burr’s donors knew the truth and had time to prepare.
The Republican refusal to stand up to Trump is going to get Americans killed.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
