Trump org/ campaign FISA warrants

[much ado]

I take the quotes to mean that those were Spicer's exact words, not that Spicer, himself, put them in quotes. Bunch of bullshit from the White House.

[Addie]

Telegraph

US makes formal apology to Britain after White House accuses GCHQ of wiretapping Trump Tower ...

Sean Spicer, Mr Trump's press secretary, repeated a claim on Thursday evening – initially made by an analyst on Fox News - that GCHQ was used by Mr Obama to spy on Trump Tower in the lead-up to last November's election.

The comments prompted a furious response from GCHQ, which in a break from normal practice issued a public statement: "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."

Intelligence sources told The Telegraph that both Mr Spicer and General McMaster, the US National Security Adviser, have apologised over the claims. "The apology came direct from them," a source said.

General McMaster contacted Sir Mark Lyall Grant, the Prime Minister's National Security adviser, to apologise for the comments. Mr Spicer conveyed his apology through Sir Kim Darroch, Britain's US ambassador.

Adding:

BBC: US will 'not repeat' claims GCHQ wiretapped Donald Trump

[Volkonski]

Britain should withdraw Trump's state visit invitation.

[RTH10260]

for the record SpiceBoy on the podium at the lectern (correct usage?)

17 Mar 2017
The White House has apologized to the British government after alleging that a UK intelligence agency spied on President Donald Trump at the behest of former President Barack Obama.

[Somerset]

Britain should withdraw Trump's state visit invitation.

That would be good

[Azastan]

Britain should withdraw Trump's state visit invitation.

That would be good

Should not have been issued in the first place.

[Addie]

So President Obama gets an apology, too, right?

[RoadScholar]

You're funny, Addie.

[kate520]

Holy shit, these clowns are left unsupervised far too often. is there anything, anything at all, even a tiny thing, that they haven't royally screwed up?

[Northland10]

If Lindsay Graham had real balls, he would simply tell Trump that unless and until he (Trump) provides his evidence, the Senate is not going to waste its time on an investigation. Give us a reason to believe a crime has been committed.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. "I read it on Breitbart" is NOT evidence.

There will always be political considerations in Senate investigations. Senator Graham can be seen by his supporters as doing due diligence on the claim and trying to take the President at his word. Going directly to Trump would have brought only excuses and delay to which some of the right wing would complain that it is the Senate that is dragging their feet.

I don't know if it was intentional but going directly to the FBI or the DOJ puts them in the position of leaving the the President out to dry. It could be seen as a way to marginalized Trump's control of the government.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Britain should withdraw Trump's state visit invitation.

But it won't.

[TollandRCR]

Holy shit, these clowns are left unsupervised far too often. is there anything, anything at all, even a tiny thing, that they haven't royally screwed up?

I'm curious whether they have plowed over Michelle's garden. Who needs gardens when you can buy food from a grocery store?

[SueDB]

Holy shit, these clowns are left unsupervised far too often. is there anything, anything at all, even a tiny thing, that they haven't royally screwed up?

I'm curious whether they have plowed over Michelle's garden. Who needs gardens when you can buy food from a grocery store?

If they can't make graft on it - it's gotta go...

[Slim Cognito]

I want to see Spicer apologize publicly.

[Mikedunford]

I like this version of the video better:

[Volkonski]

Way to make things worse.

White House: No apology to British government over spying claims

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/17/politics/ ... ap-denial/

White House press secretary Sean Spicer flatly denied Friday that the White House apologized to the British government after citing an uncorroborated Fox News report to allege that a UK intelligence agency spied on President Donald Trump at the behest of former President Barack Obama.

Earlier in the day, however, a senior administration official told CNN that Spicer and national security adviser H.R. McMaster offered what amounted to an apology to the British government for Spicer's comments on Thursday, when he cited a Fox News report that said British intelligence helped wiretap Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign.

"I don't think we regret anything," Spicer told reporters at a gaggle Friday afternoon. Asked by CNN's Jim Acosta if there was an apology by the administration to the British government over the matter, Spicer replied, "No, we were just passing on news reports."

Earlier Friday, a White House official told CNN that McMaster spoke with his British counterpart on Thursday about Spicer's comment.

[much ado]

Way to make things worse.

If he keeps this up, he's going to get himself disinvited. (I hope. )

[Volkonski]

Shep Smith: ‘Fox News Cannot Confirm Judge Napolitano’s Commentary’

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/shep-smith-f ... ommentary/

With all the attention on Fox News right now because of a report from Judge Andrew Napolitano about surveillance on Trump being conducted by British intel agency GCHQ, it didn’t take long after President Trump‘s presser for Shep Smith to respond on Fox.

GCHQ is outraged that the White House shared this report, and when the president was confronted about his tweets today, he said, “You shouldn’t be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox.”
When Sean Spicer was asked about whether the White House apologized today, he indicated there was no apology and said, “I don’t think we regret anything.”

Smith brought up Trump’s invocation of Napolitano and said, “Fox News cannot confirm Judge Napolitano’s commentary.Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now-President of the United States was surveilled at any time in any way. Full stop.”

[Dolly]

Who is Andrew Napolitano, legal analyst who first claimed GCHQ was asked to wiretap Trump Towers?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03 ... d-wiretap/

[RTH10260]

Just IMHO, the US President and the White House finally did the greatest blunder, in just fifty days in office they discredited the office of potus and the US executive beyond repair in the face of the political world. Had anyone still had a spec of doubt over the ability of Trump to lead the nation, this has finally gone down the drain. No other government will take him and his administration serious. Yes, they will communicate and react to the whims of a mad senior citizen. What's more, Trump has displayed to the whole world his weaknesses, eg how he picks up information and processes it,and other powers will use this to toy with him.

Just fifty short days to bury the Greatness of America without any chance to Make America Great Again

[much ado]

Just IMHO, the US President and the White House finally did the greatest blunder, in just fifty days in office they discredited the office of potus and the US executive beond repair in the face of the political world.

I agree, he's made it clear to the world that he is a worthless buffoon. Will the conservatives notice?

[Hektor]

You know, I used to think that the Bush Administration set the bar high (or low depending on your way of looking at things) for fucking things up. But how the fucking hell do you casually accuse one of the top allies the United States of conspiring against the (sadly) elected President at the behest of the former President and then fuck that up even further by not grasping the diplomatic and political implications of making that accusation without even the barest of a fig leaf of evidence. There isn't even a bare acceptance of the premise that a President and his staffers might actually have to be careful in say not making unfounded reckless statements. It's all apparently Fox News fault for tricking Sean Spicer into mentioning it instead of I don't know, doing his fucking job.

When you combine the absolute lack of upside to this fuck up with the fact that Tillerson was in South Korea talking about ending the Strategic Patience with the DPRK, and I think the Bush Administration has a high likelihood of not setting the bar in terms of international stability either.

[tek]

Spicer completely blew it with the "we didn't apologize" crap.. but he is behaving like everyone else in Trump's administration.

Smart operators worldwide are learning more every day as to how to control Trump.. we're going to end up doing some other country's bidding in some international conflict..

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

You know, I used to think that the Bush Administration set the bar high (or low depending on your way of looking at things) for fucking things up. But how the fucking hell do you casually accuse one of the top allies the United States of conspiring against the (sadly) elected President at the behest of the former President and then fuck that up even further by not grasping the diplomatic and political implications of making that accusation without even the barest of a fig leaf of evidence. There isn't even a bare acceptance of the premise that a President and his staffers might actually have to be careful in say not making unfounded reckless statements. It's all apparently Fox News fault for tricking Sean Spicer into mentioning it instead of I don't know, doing his fucking job.

When you combine the absolute lack of upside to this fuck up with the fact that Tillerson was in South Korea talking about ending the Strategic Patience with the DPRK, and I think the Bush Administration has a high likelihood of not setting the bar in terms of international stability either.

George W. looks like a statesman compared to Trump.

[NMgirl]

The most dangerous aspect of the Obama-wiretapped-me story is that the press is now treating this disgraceful incident as though it is a joke. The President of the United States lied to the world and then he doubled down on it. At the very least, he should be censured. That isn't going to happen, and that is because journalists are normalizing buffoonish, unethical behavior from 45. They will continue to do that for the rest of 45's tenure in the White House.

How we all laughed at the ineptitude of George W. Bush. Yet, he was able to bring the country into two wars, which cost thousands upon thousands of lives, destabilized an entire region of the world, legalized torture, all but destroyed the economy. One could go on and on. Trump is poised to do far, far more damage. Indeed, domestically he has already set about turning the US into a third world country. And he wants a war.

Trump isn't a joke. The press, as they did during the election, is betraying the American public.