Donald Trump deflected a question about his tweet accusing former President Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower during Friday’s joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“We said nothing,” POTUS said when a German reporter asked about his claim. “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.”
He continued: “You shouldn’t be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox.”
Earlier this month, Trump tweeted unsubstantiated claims that Obama had illegally wiretapped Trump Tower before last fall’s election. A Senate Intelligence Committee recently declared there is no evidence to support Trump’s claim.
On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Spicer spent nine minutes of a press conference reading a list of press clippings in an attempt to point to news organizations that have reported claims backing up Trump’s tweet. A Fox News story was among the clips that Spicer read aloud.
Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano went on “Fox & Friends” a few weeks ago and said that “three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command” to spy on Trump during last year’s election.
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.”
Trump, who regularly bashes CNN while praising Fox News, often tweets information shortly after it appears on “Fox & Friends.” Last month, Twitter went wild after media watchdogs called the president out for tweeting “Fox & Friends” statistics minutes after the news program aired.