‘Because the New York Times Wrote About It’: Trump Gives Tucker Carlson Wiretap Tweet Excuses

In an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, President Donald Trump addressed the explosive tweets he sent out more than a week ago where he accused his predecessor of wiretapping the phones of Trump Tower prior to the election. Carlson wanted to know what provoked Trump to take to Twitter to publicly make those allegations against former President Barack Obama.

“I had been reading about things,” Trump stated. “I read, I think it was January 20th in a New York Times article about wiretapping. There was an article, I think they used that exact term. I read other things.” He also brought up the reporting of Fox News’ Bret Baier.

After saying he’d heard a lot of things about wiretapping and that it’s a “potentially a very serious issue,” Trump was asked why he didn’t immediately go to the intelligence community.

“I don’t want to do anything to violate any strength of an agency,” the president answered. “And by the way, I just want people to know the CIA was hacked and a lot of things were taken. That was during the Obama years, that was not us, that was during the Obama situation.”

Finally, Carlson wanted to know why he didn’t just wait to tweet about the wiretapping until he could prove it, Trump once again brought up the NYT.

“Because the New York Times wrote about it,” POTUS answered. “Not that I respect the New York Times — I call it the failing New York Times.”

Trump would go on to talk about how wiretapping can mean a lot more than just wiretapping, because he put those words in quotes in his tweets.

Watch the clip above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona

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