Revealing dangerous paranoia, profound ignorance or both, the President of the United States leveled gravely serious accusations at his predecessor — essentially alleging criminal abuse of power.
That Trump’s claims appear impulsive makes them no less alarming for the republic.
In tweets Saturday morning, Trump asserted that President Obama last year personally ordered Trump Tower wiretaps.
Citing no source, Trump wrote that he “just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory,” calling the former President a “bad (or sick) guy.”
So much for the more presidential, sober Trump who briefly reared his head in a joint address to Congress Tuesday night.
What motivated Trump is, as often, a mystery, but he appears to have been driven by a breathlessly conspiratorial report in, you guessed it, Breitbart News, detailing radio host Mark Levin’s theory that Obama staged a “silent coup” against his successor.
To further elaborate upon the theory is to lend it credibility; no one on Trump’s staff offered up an explanation. Obama, in a statement, flatly rejected Trump’s allegation.
Indeed, a senior U.S. official in a position to know told NBC News’ Pete Williams that Trump’s charges had no merit, and that the President apparently did not consult with others in the government who were in a position to verify, correct or reject the claim.
At the very least, Trump is taking leaps that reveal a profound, perhaps willful failure to understand how national security investigations work.[...]
Professional investigators in the executive branch request a warrant; an independent judge, serving a seven-year term, must then approve it. Foreign surveillance warrants are triggered by probable cause that a particular individual committed a serious crime or acted as an agent of a foreign power.
And tapping a political candidate for political purposes is expressly forbidden.
A President of the United States should know all this. If he doesn’t, he has dozens of people ready, willing and paid to educate him.
Slowly but surely, I'm starting to get the suspicion that Rabbi Eidenson is not a Trump supporter.
ReplyDelete"[Former President] Obama, in a statement, flatly rejected Trump’s allegation."
ReplyDeleteOh. That settles that. How do you spell "Special Prosecutor" now?
first Trump needs present some actual evidence - which apparently doesn't exist.
ReplyDeleteactually I am hoping he gets his act together. I would really be happy if he turned out to be a competent president. All he really needs is to close his twitter account and listen to his advisors regarding when to keep his mouth shut. Shouldn't be difficult but he is still in diapers as far as maturity goes.
ReplyDeleteOh? And all the allegations the NYT, WP, CNN, etc. constantly repeat about his campaign colluding with Russia does not require actual evidence? Innuendo and supposition is enough for the media to keep repeating it over and over and over with just a small buried caveat that says there is no evidence?
ReplyDelete“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless
one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine
itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.”
―
Joseph Goebbels
you are really off the wall. The Russian allegations have been stated by the major intelligence networks of the US government. Have been taken seriously by Congress including the Republican members.
ReplyDeleteIn contrast Trump has produced no evidence and the FBI director has indicated Trump's claims are nonsense.
And you have the chutzpah to compare Congress, the news media and intelligence agencies to Nazi propaganda?! Truly a typical absurd Trumpian act
"The media is the enemy of the people", "media is the opposition", "the media is fake news" and "crooked Hillary". These sound-bites are all confined to "to a few points" and have been repeated "over and over" by Trump or his supporters. So in addition to "the camp of the saints" does Bannon also learn strategy from Nazi propagandists?
ReplyDelete"Allegations" are not "evidence" whether stated by intelligence agencies or in a tweet by the the President. So far the "allegations' about supposed Russian collusion far outnumber the "allegations" Trump has made about wiretapping. and have gone on far longer with no shred of "evidence" in sight. So why does the media continue to repeat over and over and over again about Russia without showing any "evidence"? Because they are the ones following the Nazi method.
ReplyDeleteyou are obvious correct that the "Saviour" Trump is surrounded by many enemies including the security services, members of congress, most Americans. It is only through blind followers like you who lower the standard of evidence into the sewers when it comes to the allegations made by Trump but raise the standards to Heaven when it comes to allegations against Trump.
ReplyDeleteThe forces of cognitive dissonance are working overtime to justify and rationalize a crackpot that by definition must be doing the right thing because otherwise all his devoted worshipers would be in the embarrassing situation of acknowledging they made a rather stupid choice in electing him president.
I too have faith in President Trump. He will continue saying and doing moronic things until even his most devoted followers acknowledge that he is a force of destruction and needs to be replaced.
This has nothing to do with the Nazi method - it is a question of who is suffering from a ruach shtuss brought on by drinking the kool-aid
The only shtuss is the stuff you keep peddling. Trump makes mistakes and like you and practically every person on Earth he doesn't like to admit it. And he either drops it (eg. the inaugural crowd size) or corrects without admitting it like many people, eg. his speaking out against anti-semitism finally. But the Democrats won't let go of the "Russian collusion" lie even though there is not a shred of evidence that Trump's campaign committed any such thing. How long will they keep investigating? 4-8 years?
ReplyDeleteAsher I am strongly suggesting that you find something more productive to do with your time. Your nonsensical answers defending Trump do not manifest your obvious intelligence.Your claims regarding the allegations against Trump are as meaningful as Trumps lies.
ReplyDeleteYou obviously are not interested in the what the rest of us consider facts. Trump does not admit errors and it is not acceptable to simply stop talking about lies without admitting he erred. It is not as if he has made a secret of his whoppers and he simply can't pretend he never said them.
But the bottom line - this is your final warning
There is a fact Trump's campaign colluded with Russia? Where do you see it?
ReplyDeleteYup. I do have more productive things to do with my time. That's why I only check this blog when I see a number next to my name in a tech Disqussion.I monitor.