Despite zero evidence to support President Donald Trump’s claims, and a multitude of experts and government officials claiming that it is impossible, the White House is calling on Congress to investigate Trump’s claim that former president Barack Obama “wiretapped” Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign.
If it seems like another Trump distraction technique, that’s because it probably is.
Pressure continues to mount against the Trump team due to their ties with Russia, and Obama has always made a convenient scapegoat for Trump’s followers.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer took to Twitter early this morning to relay the information. He called the reports (possibly referring to the Breitbart article that Trump most likely took his information from) “very disturbing,” and wants to get to the bottom of whether or not former President Obama “abused” his executive power:
(1/4) Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling.
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) March 5, 2017
(2/4) President Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) March 5, 2017
(3/4) exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016.
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) March 5, 2017
(4/4) Neither the White House nor the President will comment further until such oversight is conducted.
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) March 5, 2017
Trump’s claims have been generally laughed off or refuted by current and former White House officials. A few, like Democratic Representative Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), hopes that Trump Tower was actually tapped, because it would logically follow that a federal judge found probable cause that illegal activity (like, say, colluding with a foreign power to undermine a Democratically-elected government) was going on there.
White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders went on This Week to discuss the charges, and once again was unable to verify where or how Trump received his intel. Host Martha Raddatz would hear very little of her excuses, as they were once again unsubstantiated by any actual evidence.
As the Trump-led distraction continues to dominate conversation, the real worry, that Russia has compromised the highest level of our government, still seems to be a matter of only the slightest concern for Congress. It appears to be another week on our hands with smoke and mirrors leading the charge.
Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons user Kooloonese / CC BY SA-3.0.
