Trump Defends Allegations: ‘Wiretap Covers A Lot Of Different Things’

FILE - In this Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump speaks on the telephone with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. In the background... FILE - In this Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump speaks on the telephone with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. In the background is a portrait of former President Andrew Jackson which Trump had installed in the first few days of his administration. Jon Meacham, who wrote a 2008 biography of Jackson titled "American Lion,” said Trump has echoed Jackson's outsider message to rural America by pledging to be a voice for "forgotten men and women." But he says it's "not the cleanest analogy." (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File) MORE LESS
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President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his unsubstantiated claim that President Barack Obama’s administration “wire tapped” his phones at Trump Tower, saying that the phrase “covers a lot of different things.”

“Wiretap covers a lot of different things,” Trump told Fox anchor Tucker Carlson in an interview scheduled to air Wednesday night. “I think you’re going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks.”

In his original string of tweets, Trump specifically claimed: “President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!”

On Wednesday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer appeared to suggest that Trump’s use of quotes around “wire tapping” meant the phrase should not be taken literally.

“He said they were in quotes,” Spicer said. “It’s referring to surveillance overall.”

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