March 06, 2017
Philadelphia-based FactCheck.org has labeled President Donald Trump’s weekend allegations of wire-tapping by former President Barak Obama as “baseless.”
Director Eugene Kiely wrote the piece, which was prompted by Tweets made by Trump.
FactCheck.org's refutation of Trump's assertions, posted online Monday, begins:
“With no evidence, President Donald Trump called it a 'fact' that 'President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!' He compared the alleged surveillance to the criminal acts of Nixon/Watergate.”
“It was a startling and serious allegation about a former president, made in a series of four tweets on March 4. Yet, Trump provided no support for it, and the White House remained silent for a day. When the White House press office finally got around to explaining the president’s tweets, it undercut Trump’s baseless claim:
• In a brief statement, Press Secretary Sean Spicer urged a congressional investigation into news “reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigations.” But Trump didn’t say it possibly happened; he claimed it actually did.
• Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told ABC News that Trump wasn’t the “one that came up with this idea,” citing “multiple news outlets that have reported this.” The White House provided us with five stories, but none of them support Trump’s claim about Obama.”
FactCheck.org, which is based at Trump’s alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, takes a point-by-point examination of Trump’s claims and the evidence that the White House provided “that failed to support his claim."
To read FactCheck.org’s entire post, click here.
