Reuters: Trump claims Obama wiretapped him during campaign; Obama refutes it
U.S. President Donald Trump accused predecessor Barack Obama on Saturday of wiretapping him during the late stages of the 2016 election campaign, but offered no evidence for an allegation which an Obama spokesman said was "simply false".
Trump made the accusation in a series of early morning tweets just weeks into his administration and amid rising scrutiny of his campaign's ties to Russia.
"How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!," Trump wrote in one tweet. "I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!"
Read more ....
WNU Editor: The way the media has been handling this story gives one like myself myself a fascinating insight into how they report the news .... and why they all need to be on the same message. I always check President Trump's twitter page in the morning .... and what I saw this morning made me realise immediately that this was a big story. But when I went to the main stream media .... for the first two hours there was basically silence. There was nothing on the New York Times web site, the wire services like AP and Reuters had nothing for the first hour .... and where I live in Canada it was only reported 12 minutes into the newscast 3 hours after President Trump had made his claim (CTV News). it was almost as if everyone in the news media was waiting for their talking points. The first major outlet to start reporting on the story was the Washington Post .... and they were adamant in saying that there was no proof to the allegations. The discovery that you need to have evidence to prove an allegation is strange coming from the Washington Post .... especially since they have avoided using this evidence argument in covering President Trump and the multiple Russian allegation stories that they have posted in the past few months from "anonymous" sources. But I digress. After that Washington Post story .... within 15 -20 minutes everyone else in the media was towing the same line.
After my morning post on this story .... I had to leave to take care of a lot of personal things .... and I have been away from the news for the past 12 hours. But I did not have to check out anything .... I know that the denials would first come out from the media .... followed then by someone who speaks for President Obama .... and then the blogs/pundits/commentators/ all pile in. And guess what .... everyone followed the script. But these denials .... first from the media .... and from President Obama's spokesman .... is revealing in what has been ignored .... and the above Reuters post (to their credit) points it out ....
.... Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis said it had been a "cardinal rule" of the Obama administration that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice.
"Neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false," Lewis said in a statement.
The statement did not address the possibility that a wiretap of the Trump campaign could have been ordered by Justice Department officials.
Exactly. President Obama or anyone in the White House would never directly make such an order .... this is not how government functions. How government functions is that people who are loyal to the President are placed in positions of responsibility, and they are there because they do not need to get an order from the President .... they know exactly what he wants. In this case .... did someone appointed by President Obama in the Justice Department order this surveillance .... at the moment we do not know. For all we know .... it could be another agency. Or even someone who decided to go rogue. The only thing that we do know is this .... President Trump is an early riser and he gets a lot of news/intel/information in his early morning briefing. He learned something this morning that really ticked him off .... and he unloaded on his Twitter account. Four tweets in one morning on one topic is a record for him (that is why I know he is ticked-off). As to what comes next .... I do not know. This could end up as a nothing-burger .... or it could be something big. But politically .... President Trump has flushed out President Obama by accusing him of undermining his administration .... and there is now going to be focus on the former President whether he likes it or not. My expectation is that he is going to respond .... if not already.
Update: Zero Hedge has posted a good analysis that there may have been a court order to conduct surveillance on President Trump .... Obama Advisor Rhodes Is Wrong: The President Can Order A Wiretap, And Why Trump May Have The Last Laugh (Zero Hedge).
Update #2: In case anyone wants to know .... Everything you need to know about FISA wiretaps (ABC News).
Update #3: The main stream media are saying today that there is no evidence of any surveilalnce .... but there is evidence .... and it was know on the eve of last year's Presidential election .... EXCLUSIVE: FBI ‘Granted FISA Warrant’ Covering Trump Camp’s Ties To Russia (Heat Street)
Update #4: Someone has emailed me on what is my own personal take on these allegations. Well .... personally .... I am praying that it is not true. Because if it is true .... it would seriously damage President Obama's legacy (even if he had no direct knowledge or involvement), it would make the partisan divide in America even more partisan, and it would poison all political debates to a level that we have not seen in this generation.
More News And Commentary On President Trump's Claim That President Obama Ordered A Wiretap On His Campaign
Trump accuses Obama of ‘Nixon/Watergate’ wiretap — but offers no evidence -- Washington Post
Trump's baseless wiretap claim -- The CNN
Trump Relied on Breitbart to Claim Obama Tapped His Phones -- Bloomberg
With tweetstorm, Trump may have exercised exclusive declassification authority -- ABC news
Trump’s poor understanding of national security investigations may prove dangerous -- New York Daily News editorial
Trump's Unfounded Claims of a "Nixon/Watergate" Wiretapping Scheme -- The Atlantic
14 comments:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/03/04/the-conspiratorial-game-of-telephone-in-bannons-rag-that-made-left-right-and-potus-go-crazy/
Mensch took a great tip — that there had been a FISC order — and slapped it onto dodgy allegations floating around in ways that didn’t even make sense for FISA, much less the allegations themselves.
For those who don't want to read Emptywheel,
To sum up:
The man playing the role of the President on the Worlds Worst Reality TV Show, reads a fake news story on a fake news website and then goes crazy on twitter.
Overreach, Grasshopper. Overreach,
/Kung Fu TV reference. ;)
LMFAO.
This reminds me of how the Republicans went after Clinton with Ken Starr back in the late 90's it was rabid attack.
LMFAO,
https://www.balloon-juice.com/2017/03/05/late-night-open-thread-nutz/
" and why they all need to be on the same message"
This happens on so many a stories across various topics.
Montage of media hosts regurgitating the same thing have been done for a generation.
Much of the media is just a wing of the DemoKKKrat party.
Their brother is a CBS vice president, they work for Clinton and then are given a TV show, Jornolist scandal, etc.
LMFAO
It is all very simple: All Grifter Trump has to do is declassify his evidence and make it public. Not doing so shows him to be a con man, a liar, once again. He can declassify! He will not. Liar liar pants on fire.
Can anyone confirm if Barak knew anything about spying on Merkel?? If true, nothing surprises me anymore!!
Obama and his minion leveraged the power of the federal gov as a political weapon. It has been proven multiple times over IRS, EPA, Justice, the growing extortion fine policy etc... Using the surveillance state to tap his political opponents to gain advantage or even better maybe some leverage would just be par for the course.
I hope this will be a beginning of the Trump offensive against the previous admin. There should be a literal gutting mass firing of O appointee hires. Full review of all surveillance by the previous admin should be done along with a full audit and review of decisions. The pres often retains plausible deniability but his subordinates should be identified targeted and at least publicly shamed exposed.
ANOTHER REAL SCANDAL IGNORED BY MEDIA...
https://www.wsj.com/articles/justices-liberal-slush-fund-1449188273
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/bank-of-america-gets-2-for-1-deal-in-justice-dept.-settlement/article/2592705
Obama admin used federal gov fines to fund extort money for liberal causes. Basically a federal extortion racket were orgs were used to target companies asses fines then let said companies get off sometimes by as little as 50% off if they donate to liberal non profit X instead. That my friends is extortion straight up.
Obama and his minion like I said turned to gov into a political weapon like any good communist would.
Just the ranting and ravings of a pathological liar, with an inferiority complex. However, this one has a purpose. It's not just that Breitbart or some other right-wing obscure website published it. It's to distract all the connections with Russia talk in the media. This is typical, say something crazy and watch the media Chase it. The media is starting to catch on to the script, which is why you see the delay in reporting with unsupported Trump statements.
Wow,
Anon #2 or is Anon #3 came on line
It must be a 5 alarm call to the troll brigade.
There's Anon, a 4chan troll,
And Anon, who isn't.
LMFAO.
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