Sen. Richard Burr (R) has found himself in one of the year’s most competitive Senate races, but that doesn’t mean the North Carolina Republican is being extra cautious or responsible. In fact, by some measures, he’s doing the opposite.Borrowing a page from Donald Trump’s playbook, Burr’s campaign this week decided it would no longer share its campaign schedule with the News & Observer in Raleigh, “effectively limiting the newspaper from reporting on Burr’s public appearances.” The move followed an article last week on Burr skipping an important congressional hearing in 2010 to attend a fundraiser.And while punishing a local newspaper like this seems odd, Burr’s recent remarks about Hillary Clinton were even more controversial.
CNN’s Manu Raju has a new report that Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), who’s currently locked in a tight reelection battle, made a very tasteless joke about Hillary Clinton to campaign volunteers this Saturday.The apparently secretly recorded audio — posted in full on YouTube — shows Burr joking that when he recently saw a picture of Hillary Clinton in the cover of the National Rifle Association’s magazine American Rifleman, he was “shocked” that “it didn’t have a bullseye on it.”
The GOP incumbent — who was, for some reason, chosen to be the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee — was leading a Q&A with a group of Republicans when he, unprompted, joked about the NRA publishing a picture of Clinton with “a bullseye.”After CNN aired a video of the comments, Burr’s campaign walked it back. “The comment I made was inappropriate, and I apologize for it,” the senator said in a statement.Democrats nevertheless pounced. The DSCC, hoping to elect Deborah Ross, said Burr’s comments “about gun owners shooting Hillary Clinton are dangerous and disgusting.”The third-party candidate in the race, Libertarian Sean Haugh, added that he and Burr are very different: “I’m firmly against assassinating my opponents.”An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released over the weekend showed Burr and Ross tied at 48% each.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."