President Donald Trump’s Twitter accusation that President Obama ordered the Trump Tower wiretapped has elicited hot denials from the Obama camp, eye rolling in the media, and more angry tweets from the president himself. Now, according to Sen Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, the matter will be part of the wider investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Vladimir Putin’s Russia, according to the Washington Examiner.
Despite some denials in the mainstream media, enough circumstantial evidence exists that Trump is not just blowing smoke.
The Obama administration sought and eventually got a FISA warrant to investigate the Trump campaign for alleged ties to Russia. The Obama White House has a well-documented history of skirting the law to get what it wants.
Cotton’s announcement is an ominous twist for Democrats who had been desirous of using the conspiracy theory that Trump is Putin’s Manchurian Candidate to real political effect. They have had lots of fun demanding the resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and calling for the appointment of a special counsel. Now the shoe is on the other foot, with former Obama administration officials facing the prospect of being subpoenaed and having to face pointed questions from a panel of angry senators.
Trump’s Democratic enemies had struck at their foe without considering the president’s well-documented skill at counter punching. Trump is not from Chicago, but he well understands Chicago rules about if they come at you with a knife, you respond with a gun. Over a dozen Republican presidential candidates and Hillary Clinton have been taught the follow of underestimating Donald Trump.
Whether Trump’s implication that he was subjected to a Watergate-style, politically motivated investigation is beside the point. He made the accusation. The charge is plausible at the very least. Now the Obama people, who had been on the attack, are on defense. It if turns out that the Obama people were less than truthful to the FISA judge to get that warrant, then they will be in for some trouble on s Watergate-scale.
Sadly, scandals, whether real or contrived, are now the feature of every American presidency.
