If you were wondering how long it was going to take before Donald Trump started making an ass out of himself on Twitter following his address to a joint session of congress… it was less than a week.
Early Saturday morning No. 45 took to his favorite social media platform to proclaim that former president Barack Obama tapped his phones at Trump Tower just before ‘the victory’.
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
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
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
Donald Trump has of course offered no evidence of any wire-tapping done by the Obama administration which ironically makes the president’s claims McCarthyism in and of itself. Not to mention a sitting president cannot authorize a wiretap on a private citizen. That’s something the FBI would be involved in along along with a judge who found probable cause to authorize the tap.
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
So where did Trump derive the allegations?
First I’m hard pressed to believe the President received intelligence briefings before 7 am on a Saturday. Not to mention Trump has been so critical of the intelligence community in the past once accusing them of undertaking Nazi-like tactics. But even if Trump did receive an intelligence briefing Saturday morning wouldn’t he effectively be sharing classified information about said meeting when he started ranting on Twitter?
The likely source of Trump’s claims are alt-right sources like Breitart who just yesterday published an article citing conservative radio host Mark Levin urging the GOP to investigate Obama for tapping Trump prior to the election.
Trump got his Obama wiretapping "report" from Breitbart: pic.twitter.com/BySlOqqFeW
— jordan (@JordanUhl) March 4, 2017