Over the weekend, Donald Trump fired off a series of tweets claiming that President Obama had tapped his phone during the campaign. It has since become clear that Trump wasn’t basing this on some deep intelligence briefing, but got his info from perusing a Breitbart article that in turn grew out of comments on a right wing radio talk show. But, like every other lie that Trump mouths, once he’s said it, he’s all in.
Answering a question from ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America” about whether Trump accepted FBI Director James Comey's reported denial of his claims, Sanders replied, "You know, I don’t think he does, George."
Comey didn’t just deny Trump’s accusations, he tried to get the entire Jefferson Sessions owned-and-operated Justice Department to say it with him.
In many political scandals, it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up. For Donald Trump, it’s not the lie, it’s the inability to admit that he might ever, in any circumstance, be wrong.
Comey told the Justice Department to publicly refute Trump's unsubstantiated assertion that his predecessor, President Obama, ordered a wiretap of Trump Tower phones prior to the November 2016 election, government sources familiar with Comey's thinking told ABC News Sunday.
That’s not exactly an easy call considering that the Justice Department has become the crown jewel in Trump’s collection of “departments whose names are now super-ironic.”
The Justice Department, led by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who appears to have given false testimony about his own contacts with Russia, made no effort to correct the record over the weekend. If the Times’ reporting is accurate, it suggests the DOJ simply blew off Comey’s plea.
How does White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders defend Trump?
Sanders: He firmly believes that this is a storyline that has been reported pretty widely by quite a few outlets. The wire tapping has been dicussed in the New York Times, BBC, Fox News. And we believe that it should be looked–
Stephanopoulos: Sarah, I have to stop you. I have to stop you right there. Every single article you mentioned does not back up the president’s claim that President Obama had him wire tapped. Not a single one of those articles backs that up. So what is the president’s evidence?
Sanders: It does back up the fact that the administration was wire tapping American citizens. There was wide reporting suggesting that his administration was ordered by this president specifically, his administration could have done this.
Stephanopoulos: I have to stop you again, because that is simply not true.
Not only does Trump’s spokesperson admit that there’s no evidence outside some press accounts, the only press accounts she actually names are accounts that show there is nothing to Trump’s accusations. Even Sarah Huckabee Sanders doesn’t dare produce the laughable sources Trump really used as the basis of his Twitter rant.
Sanders isn’t the only Trump surrogate making the rounds to defend this genuine witch hunt. Over on Fox News, Kellyanne Conway hinted at, but wouldn’t actually say, that Trump has some inside knowledge.
The problem with that? If Trump knows something why doesn’t he say it? He has the authority to declassify any information he wants, and since he’s already tweeting about this, he can’t pretend that he’s holding back under some pretense of national security.
The truth is that Donald Trump is getting clobbered by one of his most bigly weaknesses—an inability to admit a mistake. Once he’s said it, he can never, never, never-ever take it back.
The imaginary wire taps have taking on a life of their own in Trump’s mind. That the whole thing has not a shred of truth to it, or that it was based as much on Trump’s rage over a bad week as it was in obscure ravings shaped up into right-wing conspiracy theory via Trump’s pet white nationalist.
As Sanders went around the dial, this is one of those mornings when it’s good to remind yourself that no one makes people sign up to be a Trump spokesperson. They volunteer for this. Keep that in mind.
Guthrie: Is that the source of this information? Strictly from media accounts and not from any other source?
Sanders: Look. The president firmly believes that the Obama administration may have tapped into the phones at Trump Tower.
Guthrie: And is that based on media reports?
Sanders: This is something we should look into. We’d like to know for sure. Look. The media has been extremely dismissive of this reporting and this potential story, while all the while being very happy to jump on all the false attacks that have been launched at this president over the last six weeks. All we’re asking for is a fair and sane look at this potential story and let the House Intelligence Committee do their job.
Guthrie: And you certainly deserve that, but just so we’re clear on this one specific point: Is his information, that President Obama tapped his phone, based solely on something he read in the media. Yes or no?
Sanders: Look. I haven’t had the chance to have the conversation directly with the president. He’s at a much higher classification than I am. So he may have access to documents that I don’t know about. But I do know that we take this very seriously and we think it should be viewed and investigated. We’re asking Congress to do their job.
Understandably, there may be a moment of sympathy who appears on television to defend a bunch of vile nonsense, but really … even a moment may be more than they deserve. Anyone signing up for this assignment had to know that lying on national television wasn’t just an occasional feature of the job, it is the job.