White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump has not asked FBI Director James Comey for evidence to prove the unsubstantiated claim that President Barack Obama was “wiretapping” Trump’s phones at Trump Tower ahead of the 2016 election.
“It’s been a full three days since the President said that President Obama had his wires tapped, his phones tapped, at Trump Tower,” ABC’s Jon Karl said during Spicer’s daily briefing. “In those three days has the White House come up with any evidence whatsoever to prove that allegation?”
“I addressed this multiple times yesterday,” Spicer said. “We put out a statement on Sunday saying we would have no further comment and we were asking the house and the senate intelligence committees to look into this concern and report back.”
“Can’t the President just ask the FBI director?” Karl pressed. “Has he asked him?”
“No, the President has not,” Spicer said.
Spicer said that congressional committees are “the appropriate place” for an investigation into Trump’s allegations.
“I think there’s clearly a role that Congress can play with its oversight capabilities,” Spicer said. “They have made it very clear they have the staff, the resources and the process.”
He said that if the White House became involved in proving Trump’s claims then the media would “write stories” about it.
“I think if we were to start to get involved you would then write stories about how we were getting involved, so it’s a no-win situation,” Spicer said.
“Do you believe that President Obama ordered—” Karl began.
“I’m not here to speak for myself,” Spicer said.
The press secretary called it “a cute question to ask.”
“My job is to represent the President and to talk about what he’s doing and what he wants,” Spicer said. “I’ll leave it at that. I think we’ve tried to play this game before.”
In response to a later question, Spicer said that he has not personally seen any evidence to support Trump’s claims.
“No, I’m not in a position that that would be regularly part of my daily duties for the President to sit down and go through that,” he said. “That’s at probably a level above my pay grade.”
Trump offered no evidence to support the allegations he made on Saturday, and a spokesman for Obama rejected that claim later the same day.
“A cardinal rule of the Obama Administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice,” Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis said in a statement. “Neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen.”
Spicer nevertheless called on Sunday for Congress to investigate Trump’s claims, and House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) said that his committee will “make inquiries” into the allegations.
“Neither the White House nor the President will comment further until such oversight is conducted,” Spicer said in a statement released Sunday prior to his further comments on the matter.
Trump: I want congress to ask him under oath. I would like this to go on for 2 to 3 years. My supporters love the drama and focus shifts from my dealings with Russia.
If PeePee asks the FBI for information, knowing that there is nothing to substantiate his allegations, does the FBI have any obligation or right to disclose that the question has been asked?
I know Obama won’t do it but I’d love to hear from an attorney about whether or not he has standing to file a lawsuit against PeePee for libel and/or defamation. It would seem that there is some recourse if someone publicly accuses you of committing felonies and tells millions that you’re either bad or sick.
If you do not have any information that would support the stupid comments of Little Donnie Trump you would answer the question in the same way Spicier answered these questions. Trump flat out lied about the bugging of his tower and now Spicier is continuing to mislead and misinform us every day.
What a repulsive fool we have for a President. What spineless suck-ups he has working for him.