Another Saturday another Trump tweetstorm. This time he’s reached a new low.
Donald Trump’s latest excursion down the rabbit hole stems from his accusation via twitter that former president Barak Obama ordered a wiretap on Donald Trump’s phone lines in the Trump Tower. The accusation was made without offering any corroborating evidence to support the claim. Three days later White House officials are still unable to explain where the president got his information.
From what we can tell, the pre-text to Trump’s twitter rant stems from a report published by Breitbart News and later repeated on conservative talk radio. As a matter of context…Breitbart is a news organization one step removed from a grocery store tabloid. Indicative of the type of reporting one often finds in this source was a story headlined: “Birth Control Makes Women Ugly and Crazy.” Former Breitbart editor Stephen Bannon now serves as Donald Trump’s closest advisor. Bannon is a self-described Leninist who has stated publically that he would like to tear down the federal government.
Any sane person residing in the White House who became aware of this story would first call the senior members in his intelligence community to find out if the story was credible. Then, with the help of senior staff, determine if a response from the president was required and craft the appropriate wording. Unfortunately that is not this president.
Had the president made that phone call he would have learned that presidents do not have the authority to order wire taps. That is a restriction put into place to eliminate the occurrence of executive overreach as was demonstrated during the Watergate scandal.
Under current law the only way that an American citizen can be wire tapped is by means of a court order issued through the FISA Court. The impetus for obtaining a court order to allow a wiretap comes from the intelligence community or the justice department, not the president. In order to get the approval for the wiretap these entities must prove to the Court that the individual in question has either committed a felony or is acting as an agent for a foreign power.
So…
Either Donald Trump lied when he accused the former president of committing a felony…or the FISA court authorized a wiretap of Trump Tower because it had been provided with probable cause to believe that someone working out of Trump Tower had either committed or was committing a felony or was acting as an agent for a foreign power.
Appearing on Sunday’s “Meet the Press”; former Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, who was acting director at the time of the alleged wiretap, said no such warrant exists. “I would have been told.”
FBI Director James Comey, who served in that same capacity at the time of the alleged wiretap, has also said that the FBI did not order a tap of Trump’s phone lines.
What that leaves us with is another reckless lie uttered by the sitting President of the United States. This time accusing the former president of committing a felony.
Last week was supposed to be a time when the Trump administration could bask in the afterglow of the president’s “presidential” address to the congress. But that euphoria quickly turned into a dark cloud thanks to the lies and subsequent recusal of Attorney General, Jeff Sessions.
Trump reportedly berated senior staff for Session’s forced recusal and left the White House for Mar a Lago in a rage. Seeking to change the bad press over Sessions, Trump decided to tweet out an attack on Obama; not realizing that he was cutting himself with his own double edged sword.
The administration had big plans for this week. The new travel ban is supposed to be released today and later this week the House is expected to release its planned bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. These are important campaign promises that should bring the administration some positive press. All threatened by the president’s reckless twitter rant.
I agree with former CIA Director Michael Hayden, a man not given to hyperbole, who said this morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”: “Let me go very, very dark on you. The President of the United States put his own reputation, the reputation of his predecessor, and the reputation of his nation at risk to get a least a draw out of the next 24 hours of news.”
As you might imagine Washington is in an uproar. Our allies are deeply concerned. The Bannon plan for the “deconstruction of the administrative state” is well underway.
It is important to note…all of this drama is the result of self-inflicted wounds. This president and his administration has yet to be tested by actors either at home or abroad who would do us harm. How will he respond when a serious matter arises? Will his erratic temperament cloud his better judgement?
We do know that at some point in the future this administration will be tested. This president will ask the people to rally round him in support of whatever decisions he makes. How will the people respond to a man who has proven time and again to be unworthy of such trust?
Somewhere Putin is smiling.
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