Fox News' Tucker Carlson goes off on GOP senator caught dumping stocks — says he must explain or resign

Fox News host Tucker Carlson came out swinging against Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina after a report broke on Thursday that he dumped stock potentially worth more than $1 million ahead of the coronavirus stock market crash.

Carlson expressed his outrage at the senator and said that, if no credible explanation is given for his conduct, Burr should resign.

"He had inside information about what could happen to our country, which is now happening," Carlson said in the Thursday night broadcast of his show. "But he didn't warn the public. 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 ten days earlier claiming America was 'better prepared than ever for coronavirus.' He didn't do any of those things!"

Carlson continued: "Instead, what did he do? He dumped his shares in hotel stocks so he wouldn't lose money. And then he stayed silent. Now maybe there's an honest explanation for what he did. If there is, he should share it with the rest of us immediately. Otherwise, he must resign from the Senate and face prosecution for insider trading. There's no greater moral crime than betraying your country in a time of crisis. And that appears to be what happened." (Burr, it should be noted, appears to not be alone in this scandal; after his deeds were first reported on by ProPublica, the Daily Beast published a similar story about GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia.)

They were harsh words, and Carlson's outrage was surprising given how disposed he is to give the Republican Party cover. It also seems clear that he wouldn't dare call out President Donald Trump, who has frequently been blatantly guilty of using his office to profit personally. And Trump, too, has had as much inside info as Burr but still consistently misled the country about the seriousness of the coronavirus crisis — something that Carlson saw happening in real-time.

To survive in the Trump era, Carlson has adopted a populist shtick that allows him to support the president while pretending to be a voice for the people. But this shtick only keeps working if he can keep supporting the president, whose devoted following is Carlson's only audience base. So it seems he's willing to wield the pitchforks against some disposable Republicans when he feels it necessary — even if he can't turn his back on the grifter in the White House.

Watch the clip below: