White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer quickly backpedaled at the tail end of Wednesday’s press briefing after leaving open the possibility that President Donald Trump could be under federal investigation.
One journalist had asked Spicer: “Is the President the target of a counter-intelligence investigation?”
“I think that’s what we need to find out. There’s obviously a lot of the concern,” he responded. “I mentioned to John, there was considerable concern last cycle when a reporter was the target of one, but part of the reason that we have asked the House and Senate to look into this is because of that.”
Spicer was referring to James Rosen, the Fox News reporter whose phone records were subpoenaed as part of a leak investigation.
“And I think you know it was interesting if you look at last week, all a sudden these stories that keep coming out about the President and his links to Russia, it has continued to be the same old, same old, played over and over again,” he added.
Twenty minutes later, however, Spicer ended the press briefing by saying he needed to clarify those comments.
“I just want to be really clear on one point, which is there’s no reason that we have to think that the President is the target of any investigation whatsoever,” he said. “I think that’s a very important point to make.”
Trump had accused former President Barack Obama over the weekend of personally ordering the wiretapping of Trump Tower.
“The one question dealt with whether or not the tweet dealt with wiretaps during the thing,” Spicer added, referring to the 2016 election. “The other is an investigation. They are two separate issues, and there is no reason to believe that there is any type of investigation with respect to the Department of Justice.”
Watch the walk-back below via NBC’s Bradd Jaffy:
Spicer: “…no reason that we have to think the president is the target of any investigation”
So why would Obama wiretap him, as he claims? pic.twitter.com/F8b382VOoI
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 8, 2017
If I remember correctly, Rosen was targeted because he solicited info from an official of a foreign government.
Does it really matter what he says?
“The one question dealt with whether or not the tweet dealt with wiretaps during the thing,”
You know, the thing.
"I just want to be really clear on one point, which is that I shouldn’t have said what I was just thinking out loud, and I want you to forget I said anything about the President being the target of an investigation, which he isn’t, and anyway you brought up the fact that he’s under investigation, not me, and he’s not under investigation even though I just said he was, and I should probably just stop talking now and–SQUIRREL!!
Of course, contrariwise, there’s no reason to believe that he isn’t.
Didn’t think of that now, did ya, Spicey