President Donald Trump appeared alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a press conference as they put their intense feud to one side, and German reporters started pressing Trump on his absurd claims that ex-President Barack Obama had British intelligence wiretap his office at Trump Tower right before the election in an attempt to find some dirt on him.
Trump again blamed others
Trump, not usually one to accept responsibility for things that have landed him in a bit of trouble, was quick to point a finger at Andrew Napolitano, the senior judicial analyst for Trump’s favourite thing ever, Fox News.
One reporter asked Trump if he regretted the claims and perhaps thought making them was a mistake. Trump quickly handed off responsibility and said that he and his guys at the White House “said nothing.” He said that all they did was follow the words of “a certain very talented legal mind” who said it on TV.
Trump insists he never formed “an opinion” about the wiretap claims, which contradicts what he was saying at the time. He then reiterated that it was Fox and not the White House who made the claims, and then told reporters, “You shouldn’t be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox.”
Fox denies these claims
Shep Smith responded on behalf of Fox News to Trump’s accusations that the wiretap claims are their fault very quickly, denying Napolitano’s involvement and stating that they never found any evidence that Trump was under surveillance in November.
Press Secretary Sean Spicer, however, has evidence back on the contrary, and can quote three intelligence sources who “informed Fox News” that Obama used British intelligence to spy on Trump so that there would be “no American fingerprints on it.” So, who can be believed? Well, Prime Minister Theresa May says that Trump’s claims that British intelligence were involved in a wiretap on his office with Obama are “ridiculous” and “should be ignored.”
The reporters had other criticisms
One German reporter asked Trump if he regrets any tweets, specifically the ones that contradict his lack of an opinion about the wiretap thing, where he called Obama a “bad (or sick) guy” in a series of angry early morning tweets about the allegations.
Trump said he “probably wouldn’t be here right now” if he didn’t have his Twitter account, so he doesn’t regret any of his tweets because he thinks they won him the election. He also said he enjoys being able to “get around the media when the media doesn’t tell the truth.” What he leaves out is that sometimes he doesn’t tell the truth, and that can be highly problematic.
