After Donald Trump had accused President Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower before the election, former Obama Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told Trump that it is because of people like him that presidents don’t have the power to order wiretaps.
Trump’s tweets caught the White House off-guard, because they had no idea that he was going to launch into a conspiracy about Obama tapping his phones:
Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
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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
How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Former Obama Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes dropped some a humiliating facts on Trump:
No President can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you. https://t.co/lEVscjkzSw
— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) March 4, 2017
There is a pattern to Trump’s tweet attacks. Before the stories on Attorney General Sessions’ meetings with Russia came out, Trump went on tweet storm attacking the press and The New York Times.
A president can’t order wiretaps. It is alarming that the current president seems to have no idea what the powers of the presidency are. Rhodes was correct. Presidents don’t have the unilateral power to order wiretaps. The reason why the nomination of Jeff Sessions to be Attorney General was so troubling for many was that it was a direct attack on the idea of Justice Department independence.
Trump’s tweets suggest that he is trying to preemptively defuse another Russia bomb that is about to drop on his administration.
The President is not only humiliating himself. He is also embarrassing the country.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
