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
As you can see, Donald Trump has been on a twitter storm this morning. He is accusing former president Barack Obama of spying on him during the election. That's a fairly serious charge and if true it probably is on the scale of the Watergate scandal.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
Why? Well if Obama really was spying on Trump he could have passed on any strategy or plans that he had to defeat Hillary Clinton to her campaign. It would be, at the very least, dishonorable and unfair. It could very well be illegal as well. Trump said in one of his tweets that Obama had tried to get a judge to clear the spying but was turned down. At the very least, it gives the appearance of Obama trying to influence the election through illegal and/or immoral means. At worst, that's exactly what Barack Obama did.
It's possible that Obama was spying on Trump for other reasons unrelated to the election. I find that extremely unlikely though. There is the whole Russian connection fake news angle but I seriously doubt that it had much to do with it. If it did, Obama was merely looking for ammo to hurt Trump before or after the election, and not any actual impropriety since zero evidence of anything improper has actually come out since the election. There was a lot of fake accusations and drama but no actual fire behind the tiny bit of smoke. If there is any justification offered at all though, Trump and his campaign's accused ties to Russia will be it.
I am hoping that Trump provides proof for his claim though. Right now, it's just a simple unsourced tweet. We are left with Trump's word that something improper happened and that isn't going to be enough for most people, me included. Indeed, the only report I have seen used as evidence for Trump's claim was a Breitbart article covering a Mark Levin radio broadcast where Levin accused Obama of trying to undermine Trump. The article can be found here, but the specific claim, that Obama wiretapped Trump, isn't in the article. As much as I want this to be true, I am hoping that Trump offers up more than a tweet as evidence.
I am sure that some people will accuse Trump of making the whole issue up even if ironclad evidence is given but as it stands right now, Barack Obama has a huge problem. If true, it is a huge breach of ethics and has the appearance of trying to illegally influence the election. Even if it isn't or is only partially true, I do think that Trump has a point. Obama had done quite a bit to demean and damage his replacement and I think Trump is right to complain. But spying on Trump during the election? If it's legit, I want him to go to jail for it.
This story is still breaking so I might post a follow up post tonight once more information is out there. For now though, keep a very close eye on this story. This really is a huge deal and may be the first counter attack the Trump administration has unleashed against their many enemies...
EDIT: The Conservative Treehouse, a blog, has some context for these tweets. It's an obviously biased source of course, but it does go to explain a bit more what Trump was talking about. Take it with a grain of salt, but it does show that this was an issue that was coming up before Trump tweeted this morning...
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