Updated Sunday, March 5, 2017, 11 a.m. EST: It seems as if President Loco is going to his tired and false bag of toddler tricks again. As with the campaign, when he faced a crisis (his taxes, pussy-gate, etc.), Donald Trump threw a ridiculous allegation at someone else—Hillary Clinton then, Barack Obama now. When all else goes to hell, why not blame the black guy?
The New York Times reports that the president has called for a congressional inquiry into Obama’s so-called wiretapping of Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential election—allegations the former president has called
“simply false.”
“President Donald J. Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016,” Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said in the statement.
It just so happens that Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, will himself answer to senators Monday regarding his meeting with a Russian ambassador during the presidential campaign, meetings he did not disclose during his confirmation hearings, even when pointedly asked about them.
Spicer added that “neither the White House nor the president will comment further until such oversight is conducted.”
Updated Sunday, March 5, 2017, 9 a.m. EST: A spokesman for former President Barack Obama has rejected President Donald Trump’s dubious claims that he “wiretapped” him as “simply false.”
“How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process,” Trump tweeted Saturday morning. “This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”
Kevin Lewis, Obama’s spokesman, said in a statement released on Saturday: “A cardinal rule of the Obama Administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice.
“As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen,” he said. “Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”
According to a January article by the New York Times, an investigation was opened, led by the FBI, and aided by the National Security Agency, the CIA and the Treasury Department’s financial-crimes unit, into possible links between Russian officials and Trump associates.
Moreover, presidents do not have the authority to order such wiretaps and would not as a routine matter even be aware of them, according to USA Today. Electronic surveillance under such an investigation would require a warrant approved by a FISA court judge.
Earlier:
I don’t know if this man is paranoid, loco or shrewd, but our president has the uncanny ability to deflect, defend and blame others when the heat is on him and his administration. This time the scapegoat is former President Barack Obama.
Early Saturday morning, President Donald Trump accused his predecessor of wiretapping Trump Tower just before his election win in November, just as Attorney General Jeff Sessions is under fire for not disclosing his meeting with the Russian ambassador at least twice during the U.S. presidential campaign.
Of course Trump did this via Twitter. And it went on and on, with Trump going to his tried (tired?) and true bag of tricks saying the supposed wiretap was “a new low” and that he might sue. He also called the 44th president “bad” or “sick” and called the alleged action “McCarthyism” and “Watergate.” He also spelled “tap” wrong.
Though there is no confirmation of how Trump got word of this alleged action, and no comment from Obama, perhaps our former POTUS had a reason to wiretap Trump Towers. Maybe he got word from U.S. intelligence that the candidate and/or his surrogates have ties with what has been heretofore a hostile nation and that it was meddling in the U.S. presidential election ... which is why Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned and his attorney general will submit “amended testimony” and go before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer further questions on Monday.