Trump accuses Obama of ‘wiretapping’ his offices
This is McCarthyism, says US president in early morning twitter attack
WASHINGTON: US president Donald Trump has accused his predecessor Barack Obama of ordering a tap on his phone. According to Trump, the incident took place around a month before he was elected and when he was still a candidate for the White House.
Trump offered no proof or evidence, and proceeded to call the former president a “bad (or sick) guy”. He might have pulled it out from conspiracy theories being hawked by right-wing publications and radio hosts.
The New York Times also did a report, saying the Obama administration had in the last days in office made intelligence about the Trump team’s Russia contacts easily accessible so as to prevent the new administration from killing the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 US elections.
There was no response from Obama till the filing of this report.
Trump has in recent days tried to blame his predecessor for the leaks about contacts between members of his campaign and the transition teams with Russia.
But on Saturday, President Trump took his allegations to an altogether new high, in a string of early morning tweets from his resort in Florida. “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”
And then this: “How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/ Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”
This is the same Obama that Trump, after their first meet in November, professed to “quite like”.
However, since assuming office, Trump has watched his presidency get embroiled in one controversy after another, caused in parts by leaks about his aides’ contacts with Russians — which cost former national security adviser Micheal Flynn his job. And attorney general Jeff Session is now in trouble for not being upfront about his contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.