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Trump Undermines U.S. Credibility with Baseless Wiretap Claim

Suppose I posted, without any corroborating documents or testimony, the following accusation to Dakota Free Press:

Dan Lederman and the South Dakota Republican Party have sabotaged my blog with denial-of-service attacks. Sick and sad!

Suppose I let that accusation percolate for a day, then followed up thus:

With all the unanswered questions about Lederman’s sabotage of my blog, the South Dakota Legislature owes the people of our state an investigation of the SDGOP and its sick and sad leaders!

I would never make such a baseless charge, because I know that such behavior would gravely damage my credibility.

Yet President Donald Trump has made just such a charge against his predecessor. Neither the President nor anyone else has presented any evidence that Barack Obama wiretapped phones at Trump Tower before the 2016 election.

To fabricate wild claims and then demand investigations of those wild claims is a gross abuse of Presidential power. It also demonstrates Donald Trump’s failure to recognize his obligation to protect American credibility around the world by adhering to strict rules of evidence and fact-checking before opening his mouth.

10 Comments

  1. mike from iowa 2017-03-06 10:15

    Drumpf undermines US credibility would have sufficed as the headline.

    The mangled apricot needs intervention and soon. Padded walls instead of padded bank accounts is just the trick for this unhinged person.

  2. bearcreekbat 2017-03-06 10:16

    While the claim that President Obama ordered a Trump wiretap is both nonsensical and delusional, I will not be surprised if a FISA Court actually ordered one or more Trump wiretaps.

    The stories of potential criminal behavior by the fraud charges against Trump University and allegations of child rape and other sex crimes would give a court probable cause to issue a wiretap order.

    The numerous Trump connections with Russia would also support a FISA Court finding of probable cause that Trump and his surrogates were acting as foreign agents, which supports a wiretap order.

    I suspect this story may well backfire on Trump if it turns out that a court authorized a wiretap base on allegations of criminal activity and/or espionage.

  3. mtr 2017-03-06 10:44

    The real question is, “What is currently going on that the President doesn’t want the press reporting on?”

  4. Roger Elgersma 2017-03-06 11:21

    mtr is right, also trump does not want us to know what he did. Since trump was talking with the Russians about throwing the election and hacking DNC computers in a Watergate type theft, The FBI better have been checking on him.

  5. jerry 2017-03-06 12:13

    I even see a tie in with our own South Dakota corruption via Cypriot banks, Check out the bag man for Putin with trump when the North Koreans fired that missile. https://twitter.com/taylorbunnag/status/838067286825177088

    Very interesting story here from DKos, http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/6/1640632/-Russian-money-Cypriot-laundries-and-Lord-Dampnut

    John McCain once said that “We are all Georgia” when that country wanted to leave the putin orbit. I guess we are now saying “We are all the USA” as we are being put into the putin orbit. Strange days.

  6. o 2017-03-06 12:26

    mtr, I agree, clearly this is a distraction – part of a larger narrative that says that there is no Russian scandal in the Trump camp.

    But looking ahead, what will be the fall-out from when these allegations are proven false. What has been the fall-out of ANY of the proven falsehoods from the Trump administration and the president himself. If those who spread lies are never held to account in some way for those actions, then where are we?

    Does President Obama have to sue President Trump? Is lawsuit the only language this President understands? Lies need to cost money?

  7. Rorschach 2017-03-06 12:32

    “The press is sooo dishonest! They know I meant tire whap and just spelled it wrong!! President Obama whapped my tire before the election! Crooked press!!!! Fake news!!!”

    Donald Thump

  8. Roger Cornelius 2017-03-06 13:23

    There are so many aspects of this story that raise some very serious questions.

    Trump has questioned a number of times that President Obama has his own private army or goon squad, if you will, that disrupts his rallies and town hall meetings, again without any documentation or proof.

    What Trump didn’t state is whether or not the wiretapping was done by the government or by President Obama’s private security force.

    With Trump’s paranoia it is hard to imagine how anyone, including the government, could wiretap Trump’s phones without him knowing it or why this wouldn’t have been revealed sooner.

    If Trump would simply use his presidential powers he could either prove or disprove this allegation and if true we could all learn the content of those wiretaps.

    If this is Fake News and Trump knows it, there is little doubt that this only serves as a distraction and will only add to the massive inquiry about his Russian connections.

    Even conservative news sources are questioning Trump’s claims.

    Trump seems to be baiting President Obama to come out of his short lived political retirement for a fight.

    Remember that Trump immediately violated that unspoken rule of a sitting president not criticizing his predecessor.

  9. mike from iowa 2017-03-06 15:16

    Wingnuts claim there is no proof of connections between the Drumpf campaign and Russians. Flynn contacted Russia’s ambassador and met with him in the WH along with Drumpf’s SIL Kushner and others. Sessions had meetings with the ambassador, Corey Lewandowski sez they had contacts. Former Drumpf campaign manager sez he had contacts with Assange and wikileaks and colluded with Russia during the campaign.

    How many contacts does it take to make wingnuts open their eyes and see the truth that is staring them in the face?

    Sessions-of all people, voluntarily lied to Al Franken when he claimed he had no contacts with Russians. The question posed to him was not about him and his contacts. He had no earthly reason to lie. He is set to be the AG?

  10. Adam 2017-03-06 23:17

    Next thing we know, Trump is gonna start claiming the Clintons have tried to hire people to assassinate him – because he knows things the rest of us don’t.

Comments are closed.