OPINION:
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, never one to shy from a chance to showcase the Republicans as bad for the people, has now stepped forward to use the president’s previous wiretapping claims and Monday’s hearings on Capitol Hill about said wiretapping to demand Donald Trump admit he was wrong — right now, to the American people and to Barack Obama.
What a bloviating showboat.
In a tweet, Schumer wrote, of Monday’s House Intelligence Committee hearing: “The FBI director has now confirmed: Pres Obama wiretapping Trump Tower did not happen. Press Trump needs to retract his claim immediately.”
Except Comey didn’t exactly say that.
What Comey said was that his FBI has looked inward and found no evidence, within the FBI, that the wiretapping of Trump Tower by Obama — as alleged by Trump in a couple different tweets — occurred.
Get that? Comey confirmed, after investigation, no wiretapping within the FBI — either using FBI sources or people — occurred. Comey made clear he couldn’t speak for other agencies.
It’s a small distinction, but a powerful one, just the same.
Kind of like when Eve deviated from the truth a bit and told Satan the serpent that God said either eating or touching the apple would cause death. Well, God only said eating — but Eve’s skewed interpretation of truth opened the door for Satan to then say, “surely, you will not die.”
We all know how that turned out, right? The moral of the story is this: Truth matters. And truth, when it walks a narrow path, as it normally does, matters.
In fact, even Democrats quizzing Comey and NSA’s Michael Rogers at the hearing knew they couldn’t leave the line of wiretap questioning simply at the feet of the FBI. Followup questions to Rogers were aimed at finding out if the NSA had participated in any type of surveillance operation on Trump Tower, under the direction of Obama or Obama supporters.
The answer? No. NSA didn’t engage in such surveillance activity, either.
But the point is the Truth — you know, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And what Schumer tweeted just ain’t it.
But in the end, for Schumer and his ilk, it’s all about political wins.
“President Trump owes the American people and President Obama more than just an explanation, but an apology,” Schumer said, the Hill reported. “He should admit he was wrong, stop the outlandish tweets and get to work on behalf of this country. No matter what else happened, there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it — President Obama wiretapping Trump Tower did not happen.”
That may be. But Schumer ought to reel in the partisanship and take the log out of his eye before pointing to the sticks in others. Especially when he retweets things like this, from Sen. Cortez Masto: “Trump administration must be honest and transparent with American people …”
Same goes for you, Sen. Schumer. Same goes for you.
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