Burr on Trump tweet: Panel will hold media ‘accountable’ on Russia

Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr warned news organizations Thursday that his panel would hold them “accountable” for any false reporting in the Russia investigation, saying that some will have “egg on their face” when the panel ultimately produces its findings.

The North Carolina Republican, responding to President Donald Trump’s morning tweet where he called on the committee to investigate “fake news,” said the panel is “in the process of developing the facts surrounding Russian meddling.”

“If, in fact, we find that news organizations have not covered it factually, I think that you’ll see that in our report,” Burr told CNN Thursday. “You’ll see that in our hearings, and you should expect it because I think that the reporting of this – judging just by yesterday’s press conference – is loose at best, and they’ll have to stand behind what they report.”

Asked if the panel was mounting an investigation into news organization’s conduct, Burr said: “No, not investigating news organizations – holding them accountable for what they say with no sources to substantiate the facts.”

Burr added that the committee’s report “will present the facts.”

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 07: Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) (2nd R) and ranking member Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) (2nd L) greet Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe (L) and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein before a hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill June 7, 2017 in Washington, DC. The intelligence and security officials testified about re-authorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is the law the NSA uses to track emails and phone calls of non-US citizens. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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“It will be the news organizations that covered it somewhere differently that will be the ones with egg on their face,” he said. “So I’m very, very confident that we’ll lay it out there in a way that the American people will tell who was covering this factually and who was sensationalizing the coverage.”

The comments come a day after Burr and the vice chairman of his panel, Democrat Mark Warner, announced that the committee was diving deep into the Russian interference in US elections and had not reached a conclusion on whether any Trump associates colluded with Russians.

Following ample news coverage of the event, Trump tweeted: “Why Isn’t the Senate Intel Committee looking into the Fake News Networks in OUR country to see why so much of our news is just made up-FAKE!”

Asked for his response, Warner had two words: “No reaction.”