Today marked the deadline for Donald Trump to produce evidence for his baseless wiretapping accusations against Obama (or retract the allegations?). Kellyanne Conway may have done more damage with her bizarre “microwave” diversion, so it was time for Press Secretary Sean Spicer to take a crack at this disaster. Spicer has made a few attempts to half-walk-back Trump’s very serious accusations, but today’s press conference topped all previous efforts in terms of ridiculousness.
In the above video, which comes courtesy of Raw Story, Spicer agreed with Trump about the Obama White House taking “surveillance” actions. Then Spicer claimed that Trump didn’t really mean to say “wiretaps” because he used quotes while rage tweeting:
“He doesn’t really think that President Obama went up and tapped his phone personally, … I think there’s no question that the Obama administration, that there were actions about surveillance and other activities that occurred in the 2016 election. The President used the word wiretaps in quotes to mean, broadly, surveillance and other activities.”
Well, there were quotation marks during part of Trump’s original tweet rant, but is it even conceivable that Trump wasn’t serious when he tweeted (with no quotes to be found) that “President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!”
I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Yeah, the “quotes” excuse is pretty weak. Trump made his claims during a weekend tantrum (including a session where he went “ballistic” on his staff) because he was upset about Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recusal from all investigations into Trump-Russia ties. His willing embrace of a right-wing conspiracy theory about a “silent coup” by Obama was both characteristic and most likely made with intent.
The White House’s version of the truth was on full display today. Here’s another clip where Spicer claimed (in the context of jobs numbers that Trump used to call “phony” but now says are “real”) that everything that Trump says is real: “If he’s not joking, of course.”
Reporter: Can we trust that what the President says is real?
Sean Spicer: “If he’s not joking, of course” https://t.co/oWeCF0Sbhv
— CNN (@CNN) March 13, 2017
(Via CNN)