Richard Burr once climbed out of a window to evade a gaggle of reporters.
So goes the story from a former senior aide who said Burr made his great escape with his drycleaning in hand. A clean getaway.
“It was further than I thought,” the senior U.S. senator from North Carolina said afterward, the former aide recalled.
When asked about the incident by The New York Times in 2017, a spokeswoman for Burr, Becca Glover Watkins, wrote in an email, “I understand from him that he did jump out a window once with his dry cleaning, but I don’t know the circumstances.”
Given Burr’s record of feints and dodges over his Senate career, it certainly seems plausible, even though Burr’s Senate office is on the second floor.
Burr, a Republican, may be wanting to slip away again these days to somewhere — anywhere else. He was outed several days ago in a pair of separate stories by NPR and Pro-Publica for:
1. Making dire (and so far accurate) predictions in a private meeting with donors about the ravages of the coronavirus while sounding substantially more optimistic in public.
2. Dumping as much as $1.7 million in stock before the markets fell as COVID-19 cases rose.
In retrospect, none of this should have come as a surprise. When the going gets tough Burr often seems to high-tail it for the nearest window.
There was the time in 2008 when, after reports that Citigroup was taking over what was then called Wachovia Bank, a panicked Burr told his wife to run to an ATM and withdraw as much cash as she could. Publicly, however, Burr had told constituents not to worry.
A news release from his office had read: “Today’s news of Citigroup’s acquisition of Wachovia might be unsettling to many in North Carolina. While these are difficult times in our economy, it is important to remember that this move provides for the protection of accounts and the soundness of savings for Wachovia’s customers. FDIC has said that all services for customers should continue uninterrupted.”
Incidentally, Burr admitted the ATM run in a speech to Henderson County business leaders in 2009.
“On Friday night, I called my wife and I said, ‘Brooke, I am not coming home this weekend. I will call you on Monday. Tonight, I want you to go to the ATM machine, and I want you to draw out everything it will let you take. And I want you to go tomorrow, and I want you to go Sunday.’ ”
At the same time, Burr has cast himself over the years as one of the adults in the room (the News & Record endorsed him twice).
What you think you see — and hear — is a paragon of honor and seriousness and fair play. But what you get is the infamous call to arms by King Arthur in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”: “Run away! Run away!”
Burr ran away from accountability when he was one of only three senators who voted against a 2012 bill that banned insider trading by members of Congress, calling the bill “insane” and “ludicrous.”
Burr ran away from fairness and common sense when he tweeted that, if college athletes were going to be paid for the use of their names, images and likenesses, then their scholarships should be taxed..
He ran away from calling any witnesses during President Trump’s impeachment trial.
He ran away from taking a firm stand against dubious reports of Ukraine meddling in the 2016 presidential election, even though he clearly knew better as Senate Intelligence Committee chairman.
He ran away from calling any witnesses during President Trump’s impeachment trial.
He ran away from taking a stand against dubious reports of Ukraine meddling in the 2016 presidential election, even though he clearly knew better as Senate Intelligence Committee chairman.
He ran away from his campaign platform for the House in 1994 that included accountability in government.
Still, as I write these words, I do wonder: Am I being too harsh?
After all, being a senator during times like these, when our politics are so fraught and tensely divided, can’t be easy for anyone.
But Burr chose to seek this job, and its many attendant perks. Three times.
And here’s the thing: Burr may yet slip away from being held to account.
In today’s breaking-headline-a-minute news cycle, he could get lost in the shuffle (you know, like President Trump’s promised tax returns).
And in the end, Burr, who is not seeking reelection, might be allowed to “Run away! Run away!” into his retirement without ever being pressed to own up to his chronic spinelessness. Somebody, quick, close the windows.
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