Trump’s Wiretapping Claims
President Trump Continues To Make Wild Accusations of former President Barack Obama
March 23, 2017
President Donald Trump has been at odds with former president Barack Obama ever since the 2008 election. Trump has made his distaste for the former president especially clear by releasing various wild and unbiased claims about him, the most controversial of which being Trump’s furtherance of the birther movement, which claimed Obama was born in Kenya rather than the United States.
Recently, Trump has made another one of these claims on his personal twitter.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” This tweet, as Trump tweets generally do, sparked remarkable controversy in American politics.
The president’s cabinet has had some varied reactions dealing with this delicate situation. Sean Spicer, Trump’s press secretary, performed some mental gymnastics for his press briefing, trying his best to placate frustrated journalists.
Though Spicer’s tornado of words and damage control was lengthy and confusing, all the press secretary got across was that everyone misunderstood Trump’s meaning behind his tweet. He hurriedly elaborated by saying “wire tapping,” with the space included, was very different from “wiretapping,” with no space. This did not help.
Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President, discussed surveillance in an interview after the tweet. While discussing all the different methods of modern day surveillance, she made yet another controversial statement, claiming that there are “microwaves that turn into cameras.” This did not help either.
Trump’s use of the term “McCarthyism” only furthers the outrage behind his claim. Not only does McCarthyism have nothing to do with the allegations, it screams irony. McCarthyism is generally described as the baseless accusations made out of paranoia to damage someone’s character, which many people consider to be exactly what Trump is displaying with the tweet. This trifecta caused many in the political world to disapprove the Trump administration further.
In the first official investigation statement, the House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes gave his verdict after brief consideration of the allegation.
“I don’t believe Trump was tapped, we don’t have any evidence that that took place.” This is the first verdict from an official investigation released so far. FBI Director James Comey will be testifying on March 20 on the matter.
If nothing else, Donald Trump and his cabinet have displayed one skill they possess over all others, and that is making very entertaining and somewhat terrifying drama for the masses.
Emily Hioco • Mar 23, 2017 at 8:28 pm
I’m confused because according to this article, you make it seem like President Trump just turned on his phone and tweeted that he has been wiretapped. We both know that is not where this all started.
On January 20th, 2017, the New York Times published an article with the title “Wiretapped Data Used In Inquiry of Trump Aids”. The article, written by Michael Schmidt and two others, cited an official who said, “intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications had been provided to the White House.” To me, it seems that the N.Y. Times is ignoring their own story.
Michael Schmidt went on to wright that the Trump Team had connections to Russia, and to support his point, said the Trump Team was wiretapped and referred back to the original N.Y. Times wiretapping story he helped to write.
Then Trump makes that ground breaking tweet that Obama was wiretapping him and yada yada yada. The crazy part about this whole controversy is the same reporter said that there is no evidence to Trump’s claim and that he is crazy.
But when President Trump said he learned about this wiretapping through the same exact article that was published in the New York Times, the main stream media goes crazy saying Trump doesn’t have any facts, he’s stupid.
In my personal opinion, I do believe it was not a smart move on Trump’s part for tweeting that tweet based off of that article without other sources/evidence.
What frustrates many people is the main stream media tells people “yes we report real news, trust us”. But the moment someone they don’t like uses their article as evidence or a source, the media takes a 360 and puts the blame on Trump. The rest of the main stream media purposely ignores that N.Y. Times article where they reported the Obama White House obtained wiretapped information from the Trump Team.
To me, the real story hear is are we able to trust the main stream media? From making up fake sources and fake news to becoming so politically biased, how are we able to find out what is going on in our country without being influenced by those who only want us to see it from their point of view?
As of 3/22, Devin Nunes reported he has seen evidence that yes, the Trump Team had been “monitored”. At this point it looks like everything has been done legally regarding the wiretapping. But there is the question of why the previous White House felt they needed to.
And no, there is no evidence that anyone on the Trump Team had/has any ties to Russia.
I respect everyone’s political beliefs and thank you for letting me voice my opinion.