After another press conference in which he refused to provide any evidence for President Donald Trump’s claim that his predecessor wiretapped him, Sean Spicer acknowledged that Trump had cited media reports in a conversation about the charge with him.
Earlier in the press conference, Spicer was asked whether the President had shared what he claimed to know about the wiretapping with the Department of Justice.
“I’m not going to get into what the President knew or didn’t know prior to it. I think we’ve already commented on this multiple times,” Spicer replied.
Then how, NBC’s Hallie Jackson followed up later, did Spicer know that Trump meant to include multiple forms of surveillance when he put the word “wiretapping” in quotes in his original accusation?
“In some cases I’ll ask him, ‘What do the quotes mean?’ and he’ll say – ” Spicer began in response.
“Did you ask him about this tweet?” Jackson asked.
“I did,” Spicer replied.
“What did he say,” Jackson asked.
“He said they were in quotes, it’s referring to surveillance overall, it was something that had been referred to in other reports,” Spicer said.
“So he cited other reports in his conversation with you?” Jackson asked.
“He did, yes,” Spicer replied.
“So is that what he was basing that tweet on?” Jackson asked.
“I’m not – as I just mentioned, good try, but I’ve been clear on that,” Spicer said, ending the conversation.
