Trump told a German reporter at a joint press briefing with Angela Merkel that he wasn't responsible for the international flap caused by his White House with Britain's GCHQ and said, "All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind — I didn't make an opinion on it — you should be talking to Fox."
During Sean Spicer's press briefing on Thursday, he read off an account of Fox News' judge Napolitano, who claimed sources told him President Obama used the British intelligence services to surveil Trump.
This angered the British so much they gave a blistering statement about those claims saying they were "nonsense, utterly ridiculous and should be ignored.”
The German reporter asked, "Do you think it was a mistake to blame British intelligence for this?"
Trump made a weird joke about how America, his own country had spied on Angela Merkel and said, "As far as wiretapping, I guess by this past administration, at least we have something in common perhaps."
That was a creepy way to get a laugh from the press pool and I doubt Merkel found it funny.
Then as is a Trump administration habit, he refused to take responsibility for America having to apologize to Britain's GCHQ and said, "And just to finish your question, we said nothing, all we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television."
Trump continued, "I didn't make an opinion on it. That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox and so you shouldn't be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox."
Because Sean Spicer read judge Napolitano's allegations out loud to the media during a White House press briefing, the Trump administration legitimized the story and did comment on it.
Napolitano's statement directly backed up Trump' allegations that President Obama had "wiretapped" Trump.
So, that was a lie, Mr. Trump.
And it was a very cowardly thing to do.
So far Trump's reliance on Fox News, and the "Fox and Friends" program specifically over his own Intelligence services has caused a credibility problem at home because there is no evidence Obama wiretapped him and has caused an international incident with the Brits.
What's next?
