White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer blew off questions about claims made by Donald Trump over the weekend that former President Obama had wiretapped Trump’s phones before the election.
At Friday’s press briefing ABC’s Jon Karl asked Spicer if Trump would apologize to Obama if the Justice Department doesn’t find evidence that links the former president to the alleged wiretapping.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” said Spicer. “I think it’s important to see where that goes and I don’t want to prejudge their work at this time.”
Spicer quickly called on the next reporter, but Karl slipped in a follow-up question that was shot down by the press secretary.
“I’m not going to get into a series of hypotheticals prejudging the outcome of a report or an investigation that hasn’t occurred yet,” Spicer said. “Once that’s done we will respond appropriately.”
Last Saturday, Trump tweeted unsubstantiated claims that Barack Obama had illegally wiretapped Trump Tower before last fall’s election. The White House has called on Congress to “determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016.”
Fox News’ John Roberts opened up the questions and answer segment of the briefing by teasing Spicer, who has become a household name after being mockingly portrayed by Melissa McCarthy on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” that the American flag pin on his suit jacket was upside down, which is an international distress call.
Spicer even poked fun at himself on Friday when he joked about attacking reporters with the podium, which McCarthy often does during her late-night impersonation.