President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Monday to claim Democrats “made up” a story about Russia interfering with the election “as an excuse for running a terrible campaign.”
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Trump’s tweets came on the morning that FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers are scheduled to testify on allegations of Russian hacking, and whether there was a connection with the Trump campaign.
Monday’s hearing before the House Intelligence Committee is one of several congressional panels probing allegations of Russian meddling. The Senate Intelligence Committee will have a similar hearing later this month.
The president says the allegations are “fake news” that were made up by political rivals as an excuse for losing the presidential election. Trump said the “real story” is the leaking of classified information, adding, “Must find leaker now!”
It will be interesting to see if anything new comes from today’s hearing. Comey has previously refused to confirm or deny the existence of any investigation exploring possible connections between Trump associates and Russia, as the Bureau does not publicly discuss its work.
Trump recently made news on social media for accusing former President Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower during the campaign. The president echoed unverified claims on Twitter made on Fox News and has been under fire for refusing to apologize despite no finding of evidence to support his claim.
During Friday’s joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Trump was asked about his series on tweets in which he accused Obama of wiretapping.
“We said nothing,” Trump said. “All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind, who was the one responsible for saying that on television. I didn’t make an opinion on it. That was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox.”
Fox News host Shepard Smith made the following statement shortly after Trump’s comments on Friday: “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.”