Trump wiretap claims: White House softens stance on unproven tweets

“If you look at the President’s tweet, he said very clearly, quote, “wire tapping” – in quotes”, Mr Spicer told reporters at a press briefing.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump’s original statement, which he released on Twitter, referred to other types of surveillance besides wiretapping.

The House intelligence committee has asked the administration to provide evidence of the allegation by Monday.

The House Intelligence Committee had set a Monday deadline for the agency to provide the evidence, a source familiar with the matter has told CNN, and has sent letters throughout the intelligence community this week to obtain records related to Russian Federation.

Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona told CNN, “The president has one of two choices: either retract or provide the information that the American people deserve”.

Spicer claimed that Trump was not lying earlier this month when he accused former President Barack Obama – while declaring it a “fact” – of having wiretapped his campaign during the 2016 presidential election. “Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”

“I’ll let the American people be the judge, but this is serious stuff”, McCain said on CNN’s “State of the Union”. Leaders in the US congress gave Trump a Monday deadline for offering proof or backing off the accusation.

Trump hosted his first meeting of his Cabinet secretaries Monday at the White House, leaving four chairs empty to represent the top-level aides not yet confirmed by the Senate amid Democratic opposition.

Tonight! Lacking evidence, White House advisor Kellyanne Conway struggles to back up Trump’s wiretap claims.

“You may have answered the question generally, but you were asked specifically”, Cuomo said. But the Record columnist’s question was more specific: “Do you know whether Trump Tower was wiretapped?”.

Trump, who claimed to have “found out” about Obama’s surveillance of him over a week ago, has not provided evidence of this claim and has instead asked for Congress to investigate it.

Obama refuted Trump’s claims through a spokesperson last Saturday.

‘I’m not sure how you took it, but I think there is a wide range of ways in which somebody can be monitored or followed up on, ‘ he said.

“I wasn’t making a suggestion about Trump Tower”.

Trump asserted in a tweet last week: “Terrible!”

Michael Hayden, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, said in an interview Monday on Bloomberg Television that no evidence would surface to support Trump’s claim in those tweets because presidents don’t have the authority to conduct such spying.