President should man up and apologize to Obama

We aren’t na Øve enough to believe that President Donald J. Trump will admit that he was wrong when he accused his predecessor, Barack Obama, of having his phones tapped in Trump Tower before the November presidential election.

But whether or not Trump apologizes, the fact remains that what he said in a series of tweets was, at the very least, the height of irresponsibility. The accusation amounted to an abuse of power on Obama’s part. The former president has denied his successor’s claims.

FBI Director James Comey backed up that denial during his appearance Monday before the House Intelligence Committee.

“With respect to the president’s tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI,” Comey said. He added that the same was true of the Justice Department.

Nonetheless, the Trump administration shows no signs of backing down, while some Republicans in Congress contend that the president was not specifically talking about wiretapping, but was discussing surveillance of his presidential campaign in general.

However, a close reading of the tweets leaves little room for interpretation.

There were four sent by Trump:

“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism.”

“It is 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!”

“I’d bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!”

“How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”

But it wasn’t only FBI Director Comey who shot down Trump’s claim of being the victim of a wiretapping conspiracy.

National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers, who also testified at Monday’s congressional hearing, disputed the president’s allegations that British intelligence services were involved in the tapping of the phones in Trump Tower.

Fox News report

Last week, the White House pointed to a report on Fox News of British involvement in an effort to bolster the president’s claim.

The report from media commentator Andrew Napolitano stated that Britain’s intelligence agency GCHQ was used by President Obama to spy on Trump Tower.

The charge angered America’s leading ally and brought an angry and quite undiplomatic response:

“Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct ‘wiretapping’ against the then president-elect are nonsense. They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored.”

But true to form, Trump has not only refused to apologize to former President Obama or the British, he has attempted to turn the spotlight away from him.

“The real story that Congress, the FBI and others should be looking into is the leaking of Classified information. Must find the leaker now!” he tweeted early Monday.

The tweet coincided with another headline-grabbing revelation from Comey. He told members of the House Intelligence Committee that his agency is investigating whether Trump’s presidential campaign associates coordinated with Russian officials in an effort to sway the 2016 election.

Comey refused to offer details on the scope, targets or timeline for the FBI investigation, which could last for months, if not years.

“I can promise you, we will follow the facts wherever they lead,” the FBI director.

Let there be no mistake about it: Had it been President Obama who accused his predecessor, George W. Bush, of wiretapping his campaign headquarters, Republicans would have wasted no time in calling for impeachment proceedings to begin.

And, had there been allegations of Obama campaign operatives scheming with the Russians, Republicans would have been screaming about a traitor in the White House.