President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Saturday morning from his estate in Palm Beach, Florida to claim that former president Barack Obama had wiretapped the phones in Trump Tower during his 2016 presidential campaign.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” he wrote.
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
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
In his accusations, POTUS made references to Watergate, calling Obama a, “bad (or sick) guy!”
Along with the claims, Trump offered no evidence as to where he was getting his information. The New York Times notes that he could have been referencing an article from conservative news site Breitbart News, which speculated on Friday night that there were, “known steps taken by President Barack Obama’s administration in its last months to undermine Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and, later, his new administration.” According to CNN, the White House did not return requests for comment about Trump’s tweets.
Kevin Lewis, a spokesperson for Barack Obama, responded to the claims later on Saturday, saying that they were completely untrue.
“A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice,” he said. “As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any US citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”
Trump’s accusations come following a week of intense scrutiny for this administration after his attorney general Jeff Sessions landed himself in hot water for denying his communications with Russia while advising the Trump campaign last year.