Regarding the accusation in a tweet by President Trump that "Obama tapped phones" at Trump Tower.
However imprecisely President Trump described what he perceived to be "wire tapping" or "evidence gathering" or "surveillance" initiated by the Obama Administration at Trump Tower---- it seems clear that it did happen.
Lt. General Flynn was fired as a result of leaked information from "routine wiretapping". There are many reports by highly credible news sources of the existence of FISA warrants issued to investigate the "Russian hacking" scandal in which Trump associates figure prominently as private citizens. So we can be confident that at the time there were many "fishing expeditions" out there. Government snooping, surveillance or "evidence gathering"-did take place on Mr. Obama's watch. It is apparent that the new President and his close aids WERE targeted.
Significantly, we now know that in the final days of his administration former President Obama felt the desperate need to expand the power of the NSA to share raw data it intercepted (and which might have included personal information on US citizens) with the 16 other intelligence agencies. The new protocol permitted dissemination of the raw data before applying privacy protection for innocent US citizens caught up in the intercepts. This has been interpreted by many as a political plot to disseminate personal information that could be construed by a hostile press as embarrassing or harmful to the incoming new administration. It also suggests that Obama was well aware of on going surveillance and wanted to insure that the information would be widely disseminated---and have a high potential to be leaked.. It was a particularly sinister way of tripping up the Trump Administration (and compromising the will of the people as expressed by the recent election).
The mainstream media and the Democrats like to persist in attorney-like parsing of the sometimes (and admittedly) imprecise words the new President uses. They prefer to analyze only the strictly literal meaning of his pronouncements. They intentionally ignore the obvious actual meaning of his communications. That permits them to falsely claim that President Trump "lies".
Perhaps the phrase "wire tapping" has a specific meaning for a few "geeks" or tech specialists in Washington DC, but to the average American it means "snooping", uninvited "prying into a private conversation" with ill intentions to use the words against the party targeted by the intrusion into their personal affairs. To most of us wiretapping might mean any of many sorts of intrusions into our personal communications. Perhaps no actual "wires" were "tapped" at Trump Tower...but that does not mean that no snooping or spying took place.
President Obama's official spokesperson has put out a very precisely worded statement indicating that no White House official ever "ordered" surveillance on any US citizen. Oh well...I guess that means, given this lawyerly response, that the former President could have "suggested" it, or "implied a need for it" or "requested" it, or "gave it a wink and nod". etc., etc.., etc..
Unlike Trump...Obama does not, or can not, use plain colloquial English. Why didn't he simply say: "I DIDN'T DO IT!"?
Perhaps he could not!
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