House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Sunday called President Trump the “deflector-in-chief,” accusing him of manipulating news coverage to his benefit.
“The president, you know, is the deflector-in-chief. Anything to change the subject from where the heat is,” Ms. Pelosi said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
She blasted Mr. Trump’s claim that the Obama administration wiretapped Trump Tower during the 2016 election campaign, calling it “just ridiculous.”
“It’s called the wrap-up smear. You make up something, then you have the press write about it, and then you say, ’Everybody’s writing about this charge,’” said Ms. Pelosi, California Democrat. “It’s a tool of an authoritarian to just have you always be talking about what you want them to be talking about.”
She said the wiretapping allegation has taken the focus off whether Russian president Vladimir Putin was involved in the hacking and release of Democratic National Committee emails, which proved damaging to Democrats during the race.
“Rather than Russia, we’re talking about, ’Did president Obama do …,’” said Ms. Pelosi. “He certainly did not.”
In a Saturday tweet, Mr. Trump said, “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ’wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”
The White House called Sunday on Congress to look into whether the Obama administration engaged in politically motivated investigations during the campaign.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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