Newsmax Reporter Stuns Biden Spox at Briefing With Trumpian ‘Spying On Campaign’ Question

Biden NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby was stunned when Newsmax White House correspondent James Rosen asked a question that echoes the Trump conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama “spied on” his campaign.

Kirby held a Zoom briefing with reporters Wednesday morning, during which Rosen — a frequently adversarial presence at White House briefings — asked a trio of questions of the retired admiral.

Rosen’s second question — an obvious reference to Trump’s conspiracy theory about being “spied on” during the 2016 campaign — drew a double-take from Kirby:

JAMES ROSEN: Second question. Can you confirm that no facet or component of the national security apparatus, including but not limited to investigations on masking or surveillance in any form, is presently trained or focused on any current American political campaign?

MR. KIRBY: I am not sure how to answer that question. Are you suggesting or you’re asking —

JAMES ROSEN: I’ll repeat it, if that would help.

MR. KIRBY: — is the intelligence community spying on a political candidate?

JAMES ROSEN: Correct. Can you confirm that no facet or component of the national security apparatus is presently trained or focused on any current American political campaign?

MR. KIRBY: This is a question beyond the NSC’s purview. But just to put a fork in it, there’s no spying on a political candidate.

Kirby’s question fell just short of the debunked accusations former President Donald Trump has constructed around the fact that members of his campaign were swept up in surveillance over their contacts with Russia. From CNN:

Did Obama and Biden spy on the Trump campaign?
CLAIM
Trump said, “Well, look, the Obama campaign spied on our campaign, and they’ve been caught, all right?” He added, “It’s probably treason. It’s a horrible thing they did. … They used the intelligence agencies of our country to spy on my campaign, and they have been caught.”

CONCLUSION
This is comprehensively wrong. There is no evidence that Obama or Biden personally directed the FBI to surveil people in the Trump campaign

EVIDENCE
Term-limited President Barack Obama did not run a “campaign” in 2016, when the FBI investigated the Trump campaign’s relationship with Russia; nothing related to the Russia investigation comes remotely close to meeting the Constitution’s definition of treason.

Also, FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was appointed by Trump, has said he would not use the word “spying” to describe what he called “surveillance activity.” But that is more subjective.

Watch the clip above.