Lawrence O’Donnell running with this….On Fox News today, Trump said that he got the idea that Obama ‘wire-tapped’ him from only 2 named sources:
1. A weeks old NYTimes story, which appeared in two versions, online and in print:
“Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates” on Jan 19-20, . “Wiretapped Data Used in Inquiry on Trump Aides.” (neither one of which said that Obama wiretapped him).
2. A question from Bret Baer of Fox News, the day before “The Tweet”. Baer was interviewing Paul Ryan, and said there was some story (no source given) that Obama had filed a FISA request or perhaps 2 of them, which were denied. Baer asked Ryan if he knew anything about this unsourced “story.” Ryan replied to Baer saying he had no knowledge of this.
Of course we know he didn’t query his FBI director about this.
Trump knows he was caught in a lie; yesterday he had Spicer remind the press that “wire tapped” was in quotes. He emphasized that himself today. Now he is obviously trying to make Comey’s upcoming testimony anticlimactic, as Comey is going to say that there were no Obama ordered wiretaps of Trump.