Radio host Rush Limbaugh told millions of listeners on Monday that surveillance “unmasking” by former national security adviser Susan Rice demonstrates how “the Obama administration weaponized politically our intelligence services against the Republicans and against Trump.”
Author Mike Cernovich broke news on Sunday that Ms. Rice was identified by the White House Counsel’s office as the one who “unmasked” associates of President Donald Trump who were randomly netted in electronic surveillance. The story went viral on Monday with additional reporting by Bloomberg and Fox News, but Mr. Limbaugh said the real story is being muddled by political analysts.
“The Obama administration weaponized everything else to use against the GOP, from the IRS to NOAA to any of these agencies, EPA, involving climate change,” Mr. Limbaugh said. “The Drive-By Media reported all of this. We know that there had to be unmasking. We know that there had to be leaking. The media proudly told us that sources who could not be identified […] fed them data. We know now that the media was complicit.”
The conservative then said media outlets that reported on possible collusion between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russia are now slow to say how the Obama administration may have legally but unethically spied on Mr. Trump’s campaign.
“I want to repeat a possibility that I mentioned,” Mr. Limbaugh said. “While [the Obama administration] couldn’t get a FISA warrant to target Americans, they purposely targeted for surveillance foreign actors that they knew Trump transition people would be talking to and learned what they were saying that way. And that’s why Rice was requesting that these people be unmasked so that she and Obama and whoever else in this operation would understand who was being talked about and who was saying what. …”
“The scandal is not Trump and the Russians,” he continued. “The scandal is the Obama administration and these embeds in the deep state surveilling targets with the express purpose of hoping to capture Americans as part of the surveillance.”
Ms. Rice did not respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment on Monday. She had previously told PBS’s “NewsHour” in March that she knew “nothing” about the issue.
“Such amazing reporting on unmasking and the crooked scheme against us by @foxandfriends,” Mr. Trump tweeted Monday. ’Spied on before nomination.’ The real story.”
Such amazing reporting on unmasking and the crooked scheme against us by @foxandfriends. “Spied on before nomination.” The real story.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2017
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.