SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
"No president can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you," fired back former Obama advisor Ben Rhodes on Twitter. (Photo: Getty)
With No Evidence, Trump Accuses Obama of Wiretapping Trump Tower
The president tweeted out the accusations from his resort in Palm Beach
Mar 04, 2017
Update 3/5/17:
The White House on Sunday asked Congress to investigate President Donald Trump's claims--still without evidence--that President Barack Obama ordered an illegal wiretap of Trump's phones during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The call for an investigation into Obama comes as the Trump administration remains silent regarding the ongoing public demand for an independent investigation into Trump's business conflicts and his campaign's alleged communications with Russian officials.
Earlier:
President Donald Trump on Saturday morning accused former President Barack Obama of wiretapping phones in New York City's Trump Tower before the November election.
In a series of tweets, Trump offered absolutely no evidence for the accusations in which he compared Obama to President Richard Nixon:
\u201cHow low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!\u201d— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1488628968
"No president can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you," fired back former Obama advisor Ben Rhodes on Twitter.
And Trump himself has garnered many comparisons to Nixon for the president's failure to divest from his businesses, his administration's attempts to use government agencies to protect its own interests, and his right-wing campaign rhetoric.
"I don't think Richard Nixon even comes close to the level of corruption we already know about Trump," commented former White House lawyer John Dean, who worked for Nixon, to the Atlantic earlier this year.
Many observers hypothesized that Trump's tweets are an attempt to divert media attention away from the scandal swirling around Attorney General Jeff Session's alleged perjury over his communications with a Russian official. The Guardian further notes that similar conspiracy theories about Obama were published in recent days on the far-right outlet Breitbart News.
Thirty minutes after making the allegations against Obama, Trump switched gears to complain about The Apprentice:
\u201cImagine if u honestly uncovered a Watergate-level scandal abt yr own presidency, but then 30 min later got bored & started tweeting about TV\u201d— David Grossman (@David Grossman) 1488635183
According to the New York Times, the president tweeted the accusations while vacationing at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Update 3/5/17:
The White House on Sunday asked Congress to investigate President Donald Trump's claims--still without evidence--that President Barack Obama ordered an illegal wiretap of Trump's phones during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The call for an investigation into Obama comes as the Trump administration remains silent regarding the ongoing public demand for an independent investigation into Trump's business conflicts and his campaign's alleged communications with Russian officials.
Earlier:
President Donald Trump on Saturday morning accused former President Barack Obama of wiretapping phones in New York City's Trump Tower before the November election.
In a series of tweets, Trump offered absolutely no evidence for the accusations in which he compared Obama to President Richard Nixon:
\u201cHow low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!\u201d— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1488628968
"No president can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you," fired back former Obama advisor Ben Rhodes on Twitter.
And Trump himself has garnered many comparisons to Nixon for the president's failure to divest from his businesses, his administration's attempts to use government agencies to protect its own interests, and his right-wing campaign rhetoric.
"I don't think Richard Nixon even comes close to the level of corruption we already know about Trump," commented former White House lawyer John Dean, who worked for Nixon, to the Atlantic earlier this year.
Many observers hypothesized that Trump's tweets are an attempt to divert media attention away from the scandal swirling around Attorney General Jeff Session's alleged perjury over his communications with a Russian official. The Guardian further notes that similar conspiracy theories about Obama were published in recent days on the far-right outlet Breitbart News.
Thirty minutes after making the allegations against Obama, Trump switched gears to complain about The Apprentice:
\u201cImagine if u honestly uncovered a Watergate-level scandal abt yr own presidency, but then 30 min later got bored & started tweeting about TV\u201d— David Grossman (@David Grossman) 1488635183
According to the New York Times, the president tweeted the accusations while vacationing at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
Update 3/5/17:
The White House on Sunday asked Congress to investigate President Donald Trump's claims--still without evidence--that President Barack Obama ordered an illegal wiretap of Trump's phones during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The call for an investigation into Obama comes as the Trump administration remains silent regarding the ongoing public demand for an independent investigation into Trump's business conflicts and his campaign's alleged communications with Russian officials.
Earlier:
President Donald Trump on Saturday morning accused former President Barack Obama of wiretapping phones in New York City's Trump Tower before the November election.
In a series of tweets, Trump offered absolutely no evidence for the accusations in which he compared Obama to President Richard Nixon:
\u201cHow low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!\u201d— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1488628968
"No president can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you," fired back former Obama advisor Ben Rhodes on Twitter.
And Trump himself has garnered many comparisons to Nixon for the president's failure to divest from his businesses, his administration's attempts to use government agencies to protect its own interests, and his right-wing campaign rhetoric.
"I don't think Richard Nixon even comes close to the level of corruption we already know about Trump," commented former White House lawyer John Dean, who worked for Nixon, to the Atlantic earlier this year.
Many observers hypothesized that Trump's tweets are an attempt to divert media attention away from the scandal swirling around Attorney General Jeff Session's alleged perjury over his communications with a Russian official. The Guardian further notes that similar conspiracy theories about Obama were published in recent days on the far-right outlet Breitbart News.
Thirty minutes after making the allegations against Obama, Trump switched gears to complain about The Apprentice:
\u201cImagine if u honestly uncovered a Watergate-level scandal abt yr own presidency, but then 30 min later got bored & started tweeting about TV\u201d— David Grossman (@David Grossman) 1488635183
According to the New York Times, the president tweeted the accusations while vacationing at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.