WH Spox: Trump Doesn’t Believe Comey Denial On Crazy Wiretapping Claim

White House deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders talks to the media during a press gaggle in the press briefing room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
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A spokesperson for the White House said Monday that President Donald Trump didn’t believe claims from the FBI that former President Obama didn’t order wiretaps of President Donald Trump when the latter was a candidate for the office.

The spokesperson, White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, also said Monday that she hadn’t “had the chance to have the conversation directly with the President” about why he believes he was wiretapped.

Sanders spoke to multiple morning shows on Monday about Trump’s unsubstantiated charge a day after White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the White House would not comment further on the charge until the congressional intelligence committees had investigated it.

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Sanders on Monday if Trump believed FBI Director James Comey, who, unnamed sources told several outlets, asked the Justice Department to refute Trump’s claims that Obama ordered wiretapping of him.

“You know, I don’t think he does, George,” Sanders responded, as quoted by Politico. “I think he firmly believes that this is a storyline that has been reported pretty widely by quite a few outlets. The wiretapping has been discussed in The New York Times, BBC, Fox News and we believe that it should be looked at by the House Intelligence Committee.”

Those outlets reported on Trump’s unsubstantiated claims, but did not offer any proof for them.

Also on Monday, Sanders told NBC’s Today show that she didn’t know how Trump came believe that Obama had tapped his phones.

“I haven’t had the chance to have the conversation directly with the President and he’s at a much higher classification than I am, so he may have access to documents that I don’t know about,” she said, asked if Trump had read about wiretapping in media reports.

“But I do know that we take this very seriously, and we think it should be thoroughly reviewed and investigated, and we’re asking Congress to do their job, and do just that.”

Watch that exchange below, via NBC:

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