Here's the first of the tweets that started the current controversy.
‘‘How low has President Obama gone to tapp (sic) my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”-President Trump, tweet, March 4, 2017
There were later tweets dealing with the same claims.
There are a number of disturbing things about this tweet.
1. I doubt any prior President has gone public with such a negative message about his predecessor. He could have made his point without the bad or sick references. This show a lack of respect and a lack of class and commitment to civil discourse in a democracy. Trump has refused to apologize. Does this sound a little paranoid?
2. The information apparently came from Breitbart news and/or some conservative talk-show. No one of reasonable caution would rely on those kinds of source to make these accusations. Trump and his spokespeople have refused to make public the source of their information. It does not appear to have come from the NSA, CIA or FBI. This is immature, class and irresponsible. He easily could have checked with those agencies.
Thus far no source or confirming evidence have been found by the Senate Judiciary committee. Some Republicans in Congress have been critical of the President.
3. Now Trump is claiming, without any supporting evidence, that British Intelligence carried out the wiretapping.
There were later tweets dealing with the same claims.
There are a number of disturbing things about this tweet.
1. I doubt any prior President has gone public with such a negative message about his predecessor. He could have made his point without the bad or sick references. This show a lack of respect and a lack of class and commitment to civil discourse in a democracy. Trump has refused to apologize. Does this sound a little paranoid?
2. The information apparently came from Breitbart news and/or some conservative talk-show. No one of reasonable caution would rely on those kinds of source to make these accusations. Trump and his spokespeople have refused to make public the source of their information. It does not appear to have come from the NSA, CIA or FBI. This is immature, class and irresponsible. He easily could have checked with those agencies.
Thus far no source or confirming evidence have been found by the Senate Judiciary committee. Some Republicans in Congress have been critical of the President.
3. Now Trump is claiming, without any supporting evidence, that British Intelligence carried out the wiretapping.
"WASHINGTON — President Trump provoked a rare public dispute with America’s closest ally on Friday after his White House aired an explosive and unsubstantiated claim that Britain’s spy agency had secretly eavesdropped on him at the behest of President Barack Obama during last year’s campaign.
Livid British officials adamantly denied the allegation and secured promises from senior White House officials never to repeat it. But a defiant Mr. Trump refused to back down, making clear that the White House had nothing to retract or apologize for because his spokesman had simply repeated an assertion made by a Fox News commentator. Fox itself later disavowed the report."
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/world/europe/trump-britain-obama-wiretap-gchq.html?_r=0
4. The source for the claim against the British came for a Trump supporter at Fox and was later disavowed by Fox
"The saga began on Tuesday on “Fox & Friends,” the chummy morning show, where Mr. Napolitano made a bizarre and unsupported accusation: Citing three unnamed sources, he said that Britain’s top spy agency had wiretapped Mr. Trump on behalf of President Barack Obama during last year’s campaign.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/world/europe/trump-britain-obama-wiretap-gchq.html?_r=0
4. The source for the claim against the British came for a Trump supporter at Fox and was later disavowed by Fox
"The saga began on Tuesday on “Fox & Friends,” the chummy morning show, where Mr. Napolitano made a bizarre and unsupported accusation: Citing three unnamed sources, he said that Britain’s top spy agency had wiretapped Mr. Trump on behalf of President Barack Obama during last year’s campaign.
Cable news blather, especially at that hour, usually vanishes at the commercial break. But on Thursday, Mr. Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, repeated the claim from the White House podium, infuriating British officials.
On Friday, Fox News was forced to disavow Mr. Napolitano’s remarks. “Fox News cannot confirm Judge Napolitano’s commentary,” the anchor Shepard Smith said on-air. “Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now-president of the United States was surveilled at any time, any way. Full stop.”
The NSA logs every electronic communication there is. You, me, Trump, Hillary--and everybody else, worldwide.
ReplyDeleteCell phone, land line, emails, short-wave radio, etc., etc. etc.
Echelon monitors Europe from the US. The Brits use it to monitor the US. Another site in Australia vacuums Asia.
And now it comes out that the FBI is doing a bunch of monitoring.
Odds are that Nobama "suggested" specific monitoring on Trump. All the uproar is from the ancient adage that a stuck hog squeals.
Art
Where's the evidence? For some people, what ever Trump says must be true. There are no lies, there are just 'alternative facts."
ReplyDelete