McCain wants Trump to provide evidence of Obama wiretapping
Mar 12, 2017, 10:58 AM | Updated: 5:15 pm
Arizona Senator John McCain said that President Donald Trump must provide the evidence supporting his allegation that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower.
McCain’s comments came on Sunday morning during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union with host Jake Tapper.
“I think the president has one of two choices — either retract or provide the information that the American people deserve,” McCain said. “Because if his predecessor, President Obama violated the law then we have a serious issue here.”
Last week the president tweeted out the alleged wiretappings by saying.
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
He then followed it up with another tweet a few minutes later.
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
Since then, McCain, who is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee along with other members of Congress have called on Trump to provide evidence of his allegations against Obama. McCain’s fellow senators Lindsey Graham R-S.C. and Sheldon Whitehouse D-R.I. have formally requested information from FBI director James Comey and acting deputy attorney general Dana Boente. Meanwhile, officials within the Trump administration have not provided any evidence to back up the president’s claim.
“President Trump has to provide the American people, not just the intelligence committee but the American people with evidence that his predecessor, the former President of the United States was guilty of breaking the law,” McCain said. “Because our director of national intelligence, General (James) Clapper testified that there was absolutely no truth to that allegation.”
Tapper asked McCain if he had any reason to think the allegation was true, at which point McCain responded by saying: “I have no reason to believe the charge is true, but I also believe that the President of the United States could clear this up in a minute. All he has to do is pick up the phone and call the director of the CIA, the director of national intelligence and say, ‘Okay what happened?’ Because they certainly should know rather the former President of the United States was wiretapping Trump Towers.”