The Fox News opinion host Tucker Carlson responded Thursday night to a bombshell ProPublica report indicating that Republican Sen. Richard Burr dumped significant stock holdings after he gave glowing remarks about the emerging coronavirus.

If Burr does not explain himself, Carlson said, "he must resign from the Senate and face prosecution for insider trading."

"There is no greater moral crime than betraying your country in a time of crisis," Carlson added.

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A bombshell report indicating Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina had dumped significant stock holdings after he gave glowing remarks about the emerging coronavirus has provoked outrage from politicians and pundits, including at Fox News.

The Fox News opinion host Tucker Carlson responded Thursday night to the findings from ProPublica's report on Burr's trading activity, which has since come under intense scrutiny and bipartisan condemnation.

Burr, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, began unloading $628,000 to $1.72 million in stock holdings — the information is publicly available as a range — starting February 13, despite arguing in a coauthored Fox News opinion column six days earlier that the "United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus."

Carlson said that while Burr might have "an honest explanation" for his actions, the onus was on the longtime Republican lawmaker to quickly provide an answer for the public.

"He had inside information about what could happen to our country, which is now happening, but he didn't warn the public," Carlson said in a monologue during his show. "He didn't give a prime-time address, he didn't go on television to sound the alarm, he didn't even disavow an op-ed he'd written just ... days before. He didn't do any of those things."

"Instead, what did he do? He dumped his shares in hotel stocks so he wouldn't lose money," Carlson added (ProPublica reported that his moves included selling up to $150,000 worth of shares of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts). "And then he stayed silent. Maybe there's an honest explanation for what he did. If there is, he should share it with the rest of us immediately."

If Burr does not explain himself, Carlson said, "he must resign from the Senate and face prosecution for insider trading."

"There is no greater moral crime than betraying your country in a time of crisis," Carlson added.

Tucker Carlson in Los Angeles in October 2018. Rich Polk/Getty Images for Politicon

ProPublica noted that contrary to Burr's optimistic public response to the coronavirus pandemic, an NPR report on Thursday indicated that he also warned members of a private club of donors on February 27 that the coronavirus was "much more aggressive in its transmission than anything we have seen in recent history" and was "probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic."

Burr gave his alarmist message nearly two weeks before the State Department warned travelers about visiting Europe.

"Every company should be cognizant of the fact that you may have to alter your travel," Burr said in a recording of the February 27 meeting obtained by NPR. "You may have to look at your employees and judge whether the trip they're making to Europe is essential or whether it could be done on video conference. Why risk it?"

Burr did not adequately respond to multiple media inquiries about ProPublica's report. A representative for him said in a statement that the senator "filed a financial disclosure form for personal transactions made several weeks before the US and financial markets showed signs of volatility due to the growing coronavirus outbreak."

He did respond to NPR's reporting, which was published before ProPublica's, and characterized it on Twitter as a "tabloid-style hit piece."

In a separate Daily Beast report, Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, a member of the Senate health committee, was also scrutinized for unloading more than $1 million worth of stock from January to February.

The first stocks jointly owned by Loeffler and her husband were reportedly first unloaded January 24, the same day she attended a private briefing with Trump administration health officials, including the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.