William H. Kelly III
Editor-in-Chief
Drama via social media continues to be a trend and for 45th President of the United States Donald Trump.
On March 4, Trump accused former President Barack Obama of spying on him. Trump began tweeting at approximately 5:35 a.m. to his now 26.9 million followers, blaming the former president of wiretapping the Trump Tower in a series of four tweets.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” said Trump via Twitter.
Trump continued.
“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!”
Trump goes on to add that the former president was “tapping his phones in October, prior to election” and that this is the “new Nixon/Watergate.”
Obama immediately responded with a statement through his representative and spokesperson, Kevin Lewis stating, “Neither Barack Obama nor any White House official under Obama ever ordered surveillance of any U.S. citizen.”
Lewis went on to say that the Obama administration’s “cardinal rule” was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice.
Jasmine Holmes, a sophomore business major from Ridgeland, Miss., disagrees with Trump’s actions.
“Trump’s entire argument was stupid and irrelevant. For him to say jail time, that’s bogus,” said Holmes.
Natalie Nicholson, a senior history and political science major from Memphis, Tenn., is tired of the drama.
“Every time CNN alerts come to my phone it’s nonsense. Obama wiretapping the Trump Tower…seriously for what reasons would Obama, who doesn’t have to associate himself in the political arena anymore, have to wiretap the Trump Tower? Trump is focused on every thing but the right things,” said Nicholson.
Over the course of approximately three weeks since the tweets were made, Trump and Press Secretary Sean Spicer have updated “facts” on the accusations made and the motive behind it.
According to Trump, who spoke on Fox’s Tucker Carlson Tonight, there was no actual evidence but instead he was influenced by an article about wiretapping in general.
Trump and Spicer also suggested a theory that Trump did not intend to literally accuse Obama of actual wiretapping.
“Don’t forget, when I say ‘wiretapping,’ those words were in quotes,” Trump told Carlson. “That really covers, because wiretapping is pretty old-fashioned stuff. But that really covers surveillance and many other things. And nobody ever talks about the fact that it was in quotes, but that’s a very important thing.”
More recently, FBI Director James Comey released at a House Intelligence Committee hearing that no evidence was found that supported Trump’s claims.
“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, “The Department of Justice has asked me to share with you that the answer is the same for the Department of Justice and all its components. The Department has no information that supports those tweets.”
