During an interview on Sunday, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway escalated the groundless wiretapping accusations the Trump administration has been making about President Obama surveilling Trump Tower before the election.
Though Trump initially accused Obama of “tapping my phones in October,” Conway suggested the surveillance might have gone much further than that. Asked by The Bergen Record if she “know[s] whether Trump Tower was wiretapped?” Conway replied, “What I can say is that there are many ways to surveil each other now, unfortunately. There was an article this week that talked about how you can surveil someone through their phones, certainly through their television sets, any number of different ways. Microwaves that turn into cameras, etcetera.”
Q: Do you know if Trump Tower was wiretapped?
Kellyanne: There was an article this week—you can be spied on via a camera in your microwave pic.twitter.com/rObFkIrLGG
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 13, 2017
On Monday morning Conway was repeatedly asked to explain why she thinks there’s any reason to believe the Obama administration would used microwaves to spy on Trump. (WikiLeaks’ recent dump of CIA documents indicates some microwaves have the capability to be used as cameras. It appears Conway’s claim was based on that.)
During an appearance on the Today show, Conway responded to questioning by abruptly trying to change the topic to health care and suggesting the media should focus on more important issues. But host Savannah Guthrie reminded her that it was Trump who concocted the wiretapping allegation, not journalists.
On @TODAYshow, Kellyanne Conway is repeatedly asked about wiretapping claims, keeps trying to pivot to health care https://t.co/WE40CsvylU
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 13, 2017
Later, on Good Morning America, host George Stephanopoulos asked Conway was asked why she would suggest Obama using high-tech microwaves to surveil her boss “without any evidence.” Conway responded by saying she was actually referring to surveillance capabilities in general, not what did or did not happen in Trump Tower specifically, and acknowledged she has no evidence that Trump was surveilled whatsoever.
“No, of course I don’t have evidence for these allegations,” Conway said.
Kellyanne on her cameras in microwaves answer: “No, of course I don't have any evidence for those allegations…” pic.twitter.com/JKnmdCsugv
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 13, 2017
During a third Monday morning TV hit on CNN, Conway reiterated her claim that she was speaking about surveillance capabilities “generally” —even though the exact question The Bergen Record journalist asked her was “do you know that Trump Tower was wiretapped?” — and said she’s “not in the job of having evidence.”
.@KellyannePolls says she was "talking about surveillance generally," says she was misquoted https://t.co/JkaWQmIUuw
— New Day (@NewDay) March 13, 2017
In between TV hits, Conway posted tweets insisting she was talking about “surveillance articles in news & techniques generally, not about campaign.” She accused The Bergen Record of using a “wrong” headline.
1/2: On wiretap claims, I have said many times that we are pleased the House/Senate Intel Committees are investigating & will comment after
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) March 13, 2017
2/2: response to Bergen Record was about surveillance articles in news & techniques generally, not about campaign. Headline just wrong.
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) March 13, 2017
Conway later retweeted a Trump tweet suggesting she’s the victim of poor treatment from the media.
The Justice Department is supposed to turn over any evidence they might have to substantiate Trump’s accusation, which appears to be based on an unsubstantiated Breitbart report he read, by Monday.
Both Obama and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper have said there’s nothing to it.
Last Monday, Conway said Trump’s claim was actually based on classified intelligence, not media reports. But in addition to Clapper’s denial, FBI Director James Comey reportedly “asked the Justice Department… to publicly reject President Trump’s assertion that President Barack Obama ordered the tapping of Mr. Trump’s phones.”
“Comey has argued that the highly charged claim is false and must be corrected, [senior American officials] said, but the department has not released any such statement,” the New York Times reported. “Comey, who made the request [after] Mr. Trump leveled his allegation on Twitter, has been working to get the Justice Department to knock down the claim because it falsely insinuates that the F.B.I. broke the law, the officials said.”