Tag Archives: wiretaps

national news, political news

Delay from Trump adds to suspicion of a lie

Donald J. Trump’s job as president of the United States gives him direct access to the finest, most professional intelligence-gathering apparatus in the world.

He hasn’t availed himself of that apparatus. Yet, he has fired off that infamous tweet in which he accuses President Barack H. Obama of wiretapping his campaign offices.

Trump could — if he had the proof in hand — deliver it to Americans right now. He has access to it. He is the president … of … the … United … States … of … America, for God’s sake!

He’s not coming forward. The president isn’t producing it. Hmm. Why do you suppose that’s the case? Oh! He doesn’t have it! It’s a lie!

His tweet the other day declared as a “fact” that the former president had broken the law. A fact, man! Facts mean what they mean. It is that the purveyor of that “fact” has the proof of what he has alleged.

Where in the name of prevaricator in chief is the proof, Mr. President?

As some have noted already — so this isn’t an original thought — can you imagine what the Republican-led Congress would do if, say, President Obama had said such a thing about Donald J. Trump?

They would have filed articles of impeachment against him before the final words had left his lips.

Where is the outrage among those in command of the legislative branch of government?

national news, political news

Uh, Mr. President? Listen to Sen. McCain — for once!

John McCain has laid it on the line to the president of the United States.

If you’re going to make an explosive allegation against your predecessor, Mr. President, it is imperative that you tell Americans the “basis on which” you are making that allegation.

That’s what McCain has told Donald J. Trump to do.

Trump ignited a firestorm over the weekend when he rolled out of the sack at 6 in the morning and fired off a tweet that said President Barack Obama “ordered” a wiretap of Trump’s offices in New York.

No proof. No evidence. No attribution. Nothing accompanied the tweet. But the flames began burning out of control.

McCain says a simple tweet isn’t good enough.

To my ears, it sounds as though the Arizona Republican — and 2008 GOP presidential nominee — doesn’t exactly believe what Trump has asserted.

At issue, of course, is the reported relationship between Trump’s campaign and Russian government officials. Trump asserts that Obama had the phones bugged so he could eavesdrop on Trump’s campaign officials to learn whether there was a relationship with a foreign government during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump has accused Obama of breaking the law. He has essentially called his predecessor a felon. Presidents cannot order phones to be bugged. These things occur through a warrant issued by a federal judge at the behest of the Justice Department.

Sen. McCain is insisting that Donald Trump tell us the basis of his wild-ass allegation.

Well, Mr. President? What is it? Talk to us. You are the president of the United States of America. You owe us — your bosses — a complete and thorough explanation.

national news, political news

Trump is going where no one can survive … politically

Donald J. Trump is now waging open warfare against the media, the FBI, his immediate predecessor, congressional Democrats and now quite possibly a growing number of congressional Republicans.

I wonder who and/or what is next for this president.

He has accused former President Obama of breaking the law by ordering a wiretap of Trump Tower. FBI Director James Comey reportedly has stated he is “incredulous” at what Trump has alleged. Congressional Democrats are livid and they want heads to roll. Congressional Republicans are more tepid in their response, but are suggesting they have “seen no evidence” of an illegal wiretap.

The media? They merely are reporting all of this.

Trump ignores analysis by his national security and intelligence team and is relying on “news” coming from right-wing outlets such as Breitbart. com and a bevy of radio talk-show hosts whose self-proclaimed mission is to discredit a president — Barack Obama — who they detest.

The danger of Trump’s mindless blathering is beginning to frighten a lot of observers in this country and perhaps beyond our borders.

This all takes me back to the campaign we’ve just endured.

Weren’t there warnings issued by folks who questioned the temperament and fitness of the man who would be elected president? Didn’t these critics tell us that Trump was not capable of managing his own narrative, let alone crafting an agenda that would govern the greatest nation on Earth?

We are witnessing a remarkable coming apart of a still-young presidency. The president himself is dismantling his administration with this ridiculous assertion that Barack Obama has broken the law, which stipulates that the president cannot “order” a wiretap.

No proof has come forward. No evidence has been presented. This allegation is as specious as the many other lies he has told ever since he declared his presidential candidacy.

The birther baloney, the Muslims cheering the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11, the illegal immigrants voting for Hillary Clinton … all of them and more! They are lies.

As for Obama — who’s now officially a “private citizen” — the thought occurs to me: Does he have grounds to sue his successor for slander, for defamation? Would he take this clown to court?