Of course earlier the President's spokesman also denied that he had any involvement in any such action against the Trump campaign:James Clapper: "There was no such wire tap activity amounted against" Donald Trump. #MTP pic.twitter.com/eNGFKe0vxY— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) March 5, 2017
"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 Saturday. "As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false."
Which of course now leaves Donald Trump revealed as a conspiracy theory spouting madman.
Louise Mensch, who I identified as being the likely original source of the FISA story, tweeted this in response to Clapper's statement.
My own FISA story nowhere mentions a wiretap. Nor does @julianborger story nor does BBC story - but Trump "just learned" he was taped— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) March 5, 2017
It should be noted that though it is likely that Mensch's initial reporting was the impetus for all of this, that it was the Right Wing exaggerations which fired Trump up and sent him on that Twitter tantrum.There is a FISA warrant issued on the Alfa Bank server in Trump Tower and all comms between two Russian banks, any US persons involved. https://t.co/7FefUAiGlP— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) March 5, 2017
And those exaggerations were based on a misreading of the initial story, and of course a desire to put blame on the Obama Administration.
You can see that for yourself in this insane rant from Mark Levin on Fox News earlier today.
And now we have this.
I swear every day is just a little bit more insane than the day before.Statement from @PressSec pic.twitter.com/WeSnymiyDB— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) March 5, 2017
Update: Comey chimes in!
Courtesy of the New York Times:
The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, asked the Justice Department this weekend to publicly reject President Trump’s assertion that President Barack Obama ordered the tapping of Mr. Trump’s phones, senior American officials said on Sunday. Mr. Comey has argued that the highly charged claim is false and must be corrected, they said, but the department has not released any such statement.
Well that just left Trump to dangle in the wind all on his own.
Do they even use wiretaps anymore?
ReplyDeleteReally. that was used on landlines one hundred years ago. Did they sweep the place for bugs?
DeleteIs Comey the go to guy for this?
ReplyDeleteTrump appears to have backed off of the idea to continue to investigate Hillary and the email server that he initially claimed he'd do in one of the debates. I'm starting to wonder if this accusation he's leveling at President Obama is just the beginning of him (and some members of the GOP) replacing Obama with Hillary as the primary political enemy to attack and discredit.
ReplyDeleteThere will always be "them" -- fascist playbook 101.
DeleteOT? TOP 10!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.politicususa.com/2017/03/05/rachel-maddow-history-finishing-top-10-viewed-shows-tv.html
Impeach the jerk! He's not qualified in any way to hold the office of potus. He does not represent me or the majority of Americans.
ReplyDeleteI knew that fat loser was going to try to investigate Obama for something.
ReplyDeleteHe wants to know the source of PBO's mojo, as dRumpf clearly has none of his own.
DeleteSo very malignant narcissist to misunderstand something very clear, pitch a temper tantrum, and try to hurt others because the narcissist is too stupid and self-involved to understand.
ReplyDeleteTrump's mouth is writing checks his ass can't cash.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-officials-dont-know-where-wiretap-claims-come-from-barack-obama-trump-towers-breibart-a7612111.html
http://fortune.com/2017/03/05/donald-trump-wiretapping-barack-obama-lawmakers/
He's collecting all the evidence in a secret special folder. When he releases it... it'll be a bombshell! Evidence on:
5 million illegal immigrant vote
Barrack Obama's True Birth Certificate showing he was from Kenya
His measured hand size
Global warming is a Chinese Hoax
Just you wait. Silly Libruls...
Deflect, deflect, deflect. Let's not take our eyes off the ball people. We must light a fire under Congress and the Senate to continue to investigate trump and his inner circle with russia, this is what they're trying to deflect from. President Obama is more popular now so he's the new shiny thing trump wants you to pay attention to..#Resist
ReplyDeleteBreaking from Comey: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/05/us/politics/trump-seeks-inquiry-into-allegations-that-obama-tapped-his-phones.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
ReplyDeleteHow about the cell phone provider? Who is trumps cell service with? and what company is wired into the tower? or what security program does he have? Norton, PCmatic? I would look at that. Trump should ask putin instead if he hacked him.
ReplyDeletePresident Obama needs to start suing the shit out of the orange pendejo loco.
ReplyDeleteLast year apple had an issue with hackers. So did tracfone and other companies. Trump has not indicated what type of phone, wireless server or system he uses. or what other tenants use in the building. I think this is one of his fake news distractions again. Russia had a file on the 16 candidates, pence, Clintons, sanders, jill and the nm dopes along with rnc and dnc. So it is ironic that he would blame the most Ethical President in our lifetime. We do know trump lies to hear himself lie. He should talk to his buddy putin and his head bannon since they have a big interest in what goes on and down in the big scheme of things.
ReplyDeleteI'd really like to see your link for the Apple hacker issue, as you put it. It has never happened.
DeleteI am growing sick and tired of trump and all of his hateful stupid supporters.
ReplyDeleteThey are making us pretty defenseless as a nation. We are portraying ourselves as dimwits!
What the hell happened to governing? The bar is ridiculously low!And to hell with all the fucking racists, homophobic assholes,sexists,Republicans liars. I have fucking had it!!!!
He just assumes everyone would do what he does.
ReplyDeleteSo of course, he assumes Obama would tap his phones because he, Trump, would.
He assume's it because he is probably deeply involved with the hacking of the DNC and swiftboating of Hillary Clinton.
We don't need no education
DeleteWe don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone
All in all it's just another brick in the wall
All in all you're just another brick in the wall
Trump Tower’s Russia email server was shut down three days before Carter Page quit campaign
ReplyDeleteCarter Page played bigger Russia role than Donald Trump is admitting
...The Trump Tower Russian email server in question saw spikes in traffic whenever Carter Page traveled to Russia, according to a scientist who has analyzed the data pattern. The server was then permanently shut down on September 23rd. Three days later, Carter Page announced he had left the Donald Trump campaign, claiming that the mounting questions about his Russian connections had become a distraction.
https://www.palmerreport.com/politics/trump-towers-russia-email-server-shut-three-days-carter-page-quit-campaign/1795/
Trump Tower shut down its Russia email server just before FISA warrant was allegedly granted
Trump scuttled hardware and personnel just before warrant came down
...This now paints a picture of Trump Tower realizing that the FBI was closing in on its Russia connections, quickly shutting down its Russia email server just before an eavesdropping warrant could be granted, and also abruptly ejecting Russian operative Carter Page from the campaign entirely because he had become too much of a liability. But now Page is asserting that Donald Trump himself was behind the Republican National Convention plot to change the party platform to benefit Russia. Trump might have done better to keep Page around, so he’d keep quiet.
https://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/trump-tower-shut-down-its-russia-email-server-just-before-fisa-warrant-was-allegedly-granted/1796/
James Comey is just covering FBI’s ass with wiretap rebuke, but it’s a bodyblow to Donald Trump
DeleteIf you’re Donald Trump, here’s how you know you’re having a bad weekend and your debilitating Russia scandal may be past the point of no return: FBI Director James Comey, who basically got Trump elected by misleading the public about a real investigation into Trump and a fake investigation into Hillary Clinton, is now calling out Trump for being a liar.
That’s today’s stunning new development, as Comey is directly rebuking Donald Trump’s claim that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower. Trump made the bizarre false claim yesterday, in a last ditch effort at distracting the American public from the Russia scandal which has now enveloped a nearly double digit number of his advisers. Comey reminded us all today that he plays for Team Comey, and not necessarily Team Trump. And it represents one of the most fundamental bodyblows to Trump’s collapsing presidency to date.
If Trump’s claim were true, it would have meant that President Obama had the FBI wiretap Trump Tower. Because the President has no such power, if the FBI had done so at his instruction, it would have meant the FBI committed a crime (there was an alleged FISA warrant properly granted to the FBI by a judge). And so James Comey appears to have taken Trump’s false accusation of a crime personally, compelling him to state the obvious: that it’s not true.
This leaves Donald Trump all alone in his claim about the Obama wiretap, with nothing but a phony Breitbart article to go on. Comey’s public rebuke paints Trump a desperate man trying to stave off his Russia scandal by any pathetic means possible. It also means that if any Trump-loyal Republicans in Congress were planning to use this as an excuse for a nonsense investigation into President Obama, that just became much more difficult to pull off. Trump will presumably attack Comey on Twitter today as soon as he finishes playing golf.
https://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/james-comey-is-just-covering-fbis-ass-with-wiretap-rebuke-but-its-a-bodyblow-to-donald-trump/1798/
It appears that POTUS knows full well the phone tap claim is bogus. Seems to be a bitter attempt to get back at media for negative coverage.
ReplyDeleteAt this point POTUS' wire tap claim feeling akin to a teenage cutter hurting self as revenge for being picked on.
We're not making light of anything. POTUS seems actually traumatized by recent spate of Russiagate coverage. He can't cope right now.
Seems to be LITERALLY using wire tap lies (KNOWING it makes him look worse) as substitute for hurting media in revenge for negative coverage
https://twitter.com/RoguePOTUSStaff
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/03/trumps-new-russia-scandal-defense-pose-as-obama-victim.html
ReplyDeleteThere is no proof or even any evidence at all that would suggest people should be going on a wild goose chase looking for evidence of Obama wrongdoing when it is many in the Trump administration and campaign who are known to have been communicating with Russian spies and lying about it during the campaign.
ReplyDeleteTrump probably counts this derailing of his Russia scandal as a win, but he is wrong. One weekend of news stories does not a scandal make.
The scandal that Trump can’t bury is the the overarching story of Trump’s close ties with a hostile foreign power that interfered in our election, because while that sounds far-fetched, there is actual evidence that led all U.S. intelligence agencies to this conclusion.
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/03/05/wh-trumps-wild-claims-confirm-idea-conservative-media.html
When the FBI director is basically calling the President a liar, the dam is about to break.
The FBI isn’t going to let Donald Trump throw them under the bus.
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/03/05/james-comey-calls-trump-wiretap-claims-false-white-house-fbi-firewall-collapsing.html
GOP Strategist Drops Some Reality: If Obama Wanted to Get Trump, He’d Have Leaked His Tax Returns
ReplyDeleteAfter Trump accused President Obama, without evidence, of personally abusing his power to spy on Trump, Republican strategist Rick Wilson pointed out just how stupid that accusation really is.
Wilson wrote, ” 1/ What would have hurt Trump more? Having the FBI/NSA/CIA go to FISC to beg for warrants that may or may not have borne fruit… 2/ Or having the IRS leak Trump’s tax returns? You do the math.”
...Former President Barack Obama is somewhere laughing right now. Donald Trump is playing thug, and President Obama is far, far too intelligent for that.
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/03/05/republican-strategist-points-obama-wanted-trump-leaked-tax-returns.html
Close Friend Of Trump Leaks ‘Obama Wire Tap’ Info That Will Make You Cringe
ReplyDeleteIn a Sunday morning blog post, Christopher Ruddy wrote:
‘I spoke with the President twice yesterday about the wiretap story. I haven’t seen him this pissed off in a long time. When I mentioned Obama “denials” about the wiretaps, he shot back: “This will be investigated, it will all come out. I will be proven right.”’
http://www.bipartisanreport.com/2017/03/05/close-friend-of-trump-leaks-obama-wire-tap-info-that-will-make-you-cringe/
http://www.bipartisanreport.com/2017/03/05/fox-news-sunday-accidentally-proves-the-obama-wire-tap-is-total-b-s/
And here's the twisted spin.
http://www.newsmax.com/t/newsmax/article/776977/16
Now I'm really scared about this mans' Mental Health.
DeleteNuts!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bipartisanreport.com/2017/03/05/ny-daily-news-releases-anti-trump-wire-tap-cover-photo-it-is-fantastic/
On Sunday morning host Joe Scarborough, of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, took to Twitter calling out President Donald Trump and his senior adviser Steve Bannon for making the ridiculous accusation that former president Barack Obama tapped the phones at Trump Tower.
ReplyDeleteScarborough posted to Twitter:
http://www.bipartisanreport.com/2017/03/05/msnbc-anchor-enters-sunday-twitter-war-with-trump-donald-is-exposed/
ReplyDeleteOur small but well connected town I have an acquaintance that is on good terms with the Trump family. She and I were talking about his presidential run in July of 2015. She volunteered that he was doing it to show the networks how popular he was and get another reality show. She then off-handedly added that his father always said “never bet against the Donald.”
We have a man that is favored by good fortune and able to work the system to his advantage. What if this tweet storm accusing Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower was not about admitting that Trump Tower had been wire tapped but to find out if he had been wire tapped in October. He now knows that neither the CIA nor FBI were wire tapping him in the run up to the election. Perhaps, now that he has lost the protection of Jeff Sessions in any investigation he wants to know what the feds might have on him.
This guy and his inner circle are crafty; we underestimate them when we assume that he is just ranting or just looking to deflect attention away from something else happening. We must look at them with suspicion and consider every angle.
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/5/1640411/-Never-bet-against-the-Donald
In less than a month, Trump had a village massacred and an American killed for the sake of his own ego, executed a disastrous and illegal religious ban that was stopped in the courts, lashed out at a U.S. ally because “he was tired,” and has had countless conspiracy-laden meltdowns on Twitter. He is a fucking crazy person, and one prepared speech being read from a teleprompter couldn't have changed that fact as much as you wanted it to. (Talking to you, Van Jones.)
ReplyDeleteThere's an episode of The Simpsons where Homer is watching a TV show of an infant who was promoted to Admiral. Everyone around the baby is trying to follow the baby's orders, but it's silly because it's a baby. That's where we are folks. We are living in a silly cartoon within another cartoon. Only it isn’t funny at all. It’s deadly serious.
Horrible things are going to happen soon: a war will be started, and people will die. The GOP has shown there is absolutely nothing that he can say or do that will warrant them to speak up, so Democrats had better get on the damn ball. Stop debating policy points and start fighting for reality: every Democrat at every legislative level needs to start openly calling for Trump’s removal from office due to his lack of mental fitness.
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/4/1640237/-It-s-time-GOP-faces-reality-even-if-Twitler-can-t
Who is Louise Mensch, and when did Newscorp push her out from reporting/editing for website heatst.com?
ReplyDelete...The Guardian profiled her scooping US media about the counterintelligence investigation of communications from a Russian financial institution, that she had identified a fisa warrant, based on communications with a Russian bank and transactions with “US persons”. Her story on Nov 7, and reiterated Nov 10, never pointed to Trump himself as a principal focus. No claim of tapping his phones.
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/5/1640350/-Reporter-is-Too-Hot-for-HeatStreet-newscorp-she-is-sidelined-for-her-Russiagate-reporting
As I wrote the other day, there is a serious potential issue with the FBI being compromised on this investigation and the history here is very interesting. After receiving copies of former MI6 agent Christopher Steele’s memo on collusion and influence between the Kremlin and members of the Trump entourage the FBI apparently offered him a job working directly for them, only to rescind that offer when he went public with David Corn of Mother Jones after becoming deeply frustrated by their stonewalling. Immediately after that, the FBI went public refuting all of his claims of Kremlin influence on Trump.
ReplyDeleteThat's a curious history. And a troubling one.
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/5/1638840/-The-cracks-in-Trump-s-Kremlin-cover-up-appear-to-be-collapsing
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/trump-is-incredibly-pssed-off-no-one-believes-his-obama-wiretaps-story-says-adviser/
ReplyDeleteDisgusting trump steps off the helicopter and does not even look at the soldier saluting him. He has that ugly ass pout and selfish glare. He looks like he hates the white house and everything it stands for. He should have listened to his wife and kept his lousy life private and broke. Impeachment will not be fun.
ReplyDelete