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As near as I can tell, two Saturdays ago, Trump sent out a series of tweets accusing Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower.
Trump presented no evidence of this, nor did the DOJ present any when the House Intelligence Committee demanded it a few days ago.
Everyone who would be in a position to know whether this could have happened has said it did not.
Spicer, reading a press release as if he was getting paid by the words per minute, accused the British of doing it. Brits told him to take that back as they didn't do it.
At this point, there is no evidence that it even occurred, let alone who did (or didn't) do it.
Correct?
To add a few more facts to your history.
Regarding Spicer's allegation, the British intelligence agency issued this statement:
"Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct 'wiretapping' against the then president elect are nonsense. They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored.''
Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee made this statement on 3/15:
"Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016,"
Watch the Trump hard liners go deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole trying to defend this Administration. If these facts are indefensible? Then they will change the subject, to Obama, to Clinton, to the "MSM", ANYTHING so that they don't have to address the reality of Donald Trump. What they don't seem to realize is that they are now standing on a very thin limb with Mr. Trump, with zero credibility left to support them.
Last edited by GearHeadDave; 03-17-2017 at 08:36 AM..
As near as I can tell, two Saturdays ago, Trump sent out a series of tweets accusing Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower.
Trump presented no evidence of this, nor did the DOJ present any when the House Intelligence Committee demanded it a few days ago.
Everyone who would be in a position to know whether this could have happened has said it did not.
Spicer, reading a press release as if he was getting paid by the words per minute, accused the British of doing it. Brits told him to take that back as they didn't do it.
At this point, there is no evidence that it even occurred, let alone who did (or didn't) do it.
No. This started with Trump's repeated references to Russia early on the campaign and associations with individuals with ties to Russia and the Ukraine that *may* be corrupt. Call it fair or not - but this was "enough" to lead to MSM stories and very possibly intel investigations (not necessarily with Trump as a target). The base of the Russian "fairy tale" is Trump as usual saying whatever comes to his head with a peak created by his fingers on that phone.
No it did not start there.
It started here, at 44 seconds in. Trump told a joke and outraged Democrats with their allies in the MSM concocted the Russian fairy tale.
Before someone brings up the NYT article (Jan. 20) that even Trump now is quoting there IS interesting language used in the British denial:
The British official told Reuters that under British law, GCHQ "can only gather intelligence for national security purposes" and noted that a US election "clearly doesn't meet that criteria".
Trump pretty much accused Obama of trying to throw the election; the Brits may be replying within that context. Nothing political. And that's clear from the timing of the leaks. NOT before the election - although there was a hint after the October Comey letter with some opaque Clinton/Podesta/Reid references.
The FBI has YET to confirm (as far as I know) the status of any Trump-related investigations although it's pretty much assumed some exist of his associates. Per an article the other day, both sides of Congress - Republican as well as Democrat - now are irritated as well they should be for Comey put himself right in the middle of this. For all the speculation - investigations, FISAs, conclusions ("no evidence found"), there's nothing yet concrete. So sure there could be overseas electronic surveillance made available for some investigations.
Problem is no one's playing by the "rules" here. Trump chose to go rogue as a candidate ("un-Presidential). Clinton with the Foundation and even the Wall Street speeches sure raised some eyebrows - and rightfully. Comey appeared to breach past practice with his summer comments about the initial FBI decision on the server then the October bomb. Now intel is leaking like a sieve - which I would guess results, in part, from absolute dismay at some of the FBI actions. Once "rules" (written or merely understood, tradition) start being ignored, other's feel justified to reply in kind with resulting mess.
This was deliberate. Trump has Spicer throw an incendiary accusation to try to defend the incendiary accusation that Trump threw earlier in the tweets.
And why do you think that happened? IMO Trump isn't ready for this whole charade to end yet, which means he hasn't gotten something he wants yet.
DC is desperate for this whole ugly mess to end. Before that happens though, I suspect Trump wants acknowledgement that yes, someone in the Obama administration tried to obtain FISA warrants to go after Trump and his campaign.
There's a good reason Obama is tucked safely away in French Polynesia, safe from the prying eyes of the MSM.
The problem here is that Trump gets his news from fake news sources. For all of his BS and tweeting about fake news and the 'failing' NY Times, in fact, the NY Times does research stories, does have good sources, as does the Washington Post. There are reporters at the Times who have gone to jail rather than betray their sources--I'd like to see Bret Baier or Sean Hannity do that, but they won't because they have no real sources.
But Trump and his devoted base of supporters, choose to get their news from false sources and then attack the real press that does not print fake news. Trump has repeated false news time and time again.
During the campaign he repeated lies and conspiracy theories about Clinton, Cruz, Obama and pretty much everything the Enquirer, Fox News, WND, Alex Jones, Mark Levin, Gateway Pundit put out there. (By Fox News, I mean to refer to Sean Hannity, Bret Baier, Pirro, Napolitano and their ilk of conspiracy pushers and rumor mongers, and not people like former anchor Meghan Kelly or Bill O'Reilly).
Hannity, et.al. consistently repeat lies as fact, their opinions as fact, rumors and gossip as fact and their gullible viewers believe it.
This so-called president is the most reckless irresponsible person ever to sit in this office. He is dangerous and he is ignorant, which is why he believes all kinds of garbage as truth. This is the nut job who headed the birther investigation in which he claimed that he would be proven correct. He wasn't, and he produced none of the promised evidence.
He is doing the same thing now with this 'wire tap(p)' BS. This embarrassing president and this era will not be treated kindly by history. It will be a giant embarrassing black mark on our country. He will lie and lie and lie without any repercussions, which is why he continues to lie.
That embarrassing mishmash of 'evidence' read by Spicer at the press conference is an insult to all thinking people. The GOP (aside from a few with balls) is embarrassing themselves by not speaking out about this entire fiasco.
There is also a huge problem in that the West Wing is very sloppy with information. I know that someone told Spicey what to say, but it shows the level of indifference to accuracy. These people don't seem to realize yet that every word that comes out of the White House has consequences. We can't have an international crisis every day like this. When will this end?
MSM stories about Trump and Putin began well before that. The one that struck me most were the fibs Trump told that sure implied he "knew" Putin (that they'd met).
Don't have access to MSNBC and only see left-wing journals/blogs when friends send links. My take of the MSM coverage of Trump's joke was that it demonstrated Trump's inability to grasp that certain lines should not be crossed. The Roger Stone tweets that seemed to foretell Wiki leaks probably encouraged the Trump-Putin conspiracy theories most. Then, of course, hints about the intel briefings in October, whose content is unknown.
Don't have access to MSNBC and only see left-wing journals/blogs when friends send links. My take of the MSM coverage of Trump's joke was that it demonstrated Trump's inability to grasp that certain lines should not be crossed. The Roger Stone tweets that seemed to foretell Wiki leaks probably encouraged the Trump-Putin conspiracy theories most. Then, of course, hints about the intel briefings in October, whose content is unknown.
Yes you're right, there was chatter beforehand, but IMO Trump's joke set the MSM on fire.
It wouldn't surprise me if Trump strings this out for awhile. He knows his tweets are nonsense, but IMO he's royally ticked off and wants acknowledgement the Obama administration played fast and loose. From Eli Lake -
"There is already some evidence to suggest Nunes and Schiff are onto something. On March 1, the New York Times reported that in the final days and weeks of the Obama administration, White House officials rushed to preserve and distribute intelligence on connections between Russia and Trump's associates throughout the government. In practice this meant that raw intelligence was processed into analytical reports and classified at a relatively low level. "As Inauguration Day approached, Obama White House officials grew convinced that the intelligence was damning and that they needed to ensure that as many people as possible inside government could see it," according to the Times.
Did this raw intelligence include Flynn's calls with the Russian ambassador? Depending on what Schiff and Nunes turn up, this could be a real scandal, particularly if the names of other Trump associates picked up in incidental surveillance were unmasked and distributed widely within the government."
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