Following a joint statement on Thursday from Senate Intelligence Committee leaders refuting President Trump’s claim about being wiretapped by his predecessor, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and David Chalian could barely contain their glee, heralding the “clear rebuke” of the “third grader” in Trump who, they claim, could put the issue to rest if he apologized to Barack Obama.
The reality is, however, that the media would not simply move on if Trump apologized or retracted his tweets. Why? It’s how the media and liberals work. They demand something from their opponents and when they get it, they move the goal posts.
“We’re also getting in this breaking news — very important breaking news from the Senate Intelligence Committee. We're just learning that the Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr and the Vice Chairman, Mark Warner, made the following joint statement regarding evidence that Trump Tower in New York City was wiretapped during the 2016 election,” Blitzer trumpeted before reading the statement that they’ve seen nothing to conclude Trump Tower was under surveillance.
Blitzer reminded viewers of “[t]he four tweets when he made these brutal accusations against President Obama” that he’s had to “carry...around with more for almost two weeks” before proclaiming: “What a rebuke of the President coming the day after his interview last night on Fox in which he doubled down on his accusations.”
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This teed up Chalian to continue the gloating that “[y]esterday on Fox, he was still trying to worm his way out of the lie about wiretapping” but has a problem now that Trump’s contradicted by “[t]he people who are briefed with utmost intelligence from our intelligence community.”
Chalian continued:
They are now providing a path to the President where he can no longer justify not retracting those tweets, apologizing for accusing Barack Obama of a crime without any evidence whatsoever. I just think the White House is in such a pickle on this. They’ve been twisting themselves in a pretzel. The President looked like a — like a third grader in that interview yesterday trying to squirm out of a lie. This is a clear rebuke.
A few moments later, Blitzer hilariously argued that the discussion about Trump and wiretapping would move on if Trump apologized to Obama: “He could simply say, you know? I made a mistake. I want to apologize to President Obama for smearing him the way I did, making this accusation against him. Let's move on. We're not hearing that.”
Chalian added that “it’s just not okay for the President of the United States to make this kind of unsubstantiated claim.” He falsely concluded that this is dominating the Trump White House instead of other issues when, in reality, the administration is actively working on the issues he mentioned below:
He has a lot of things on his desk right now. ObamaCare repeal and replace, getting this travel ban through courts if the believes it will pass constitutional muster and fight that all the way through, getting his nominee, Neil Gorsuch, on the Supreme Court. There are — there's no end to the list of very big things that he should really be focusing on and pushing through on his agenda and this is a complete distraction from that.
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from CNN’s Wolf on March 16:
CNN’s Wolf
March 16, 2016
1:52 p.m. Eastern
WOLF BLITZER: We’re also getting in this breaking news — very important breaking news from the Senate Intelligence Committee. We're just learning that the Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr and the Vice Chairman, Mark Warner, made the following joint statement regarding evidence that Trump Tower in New York City was wiretapped during the 2016 election. Let me read it to all of our viewers — very important information: “Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016.” I want to bring in our political director David Chalian. Alright. President is being firmly rejected now by the Republican chairman, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, saying he was totally wrong in those allegations he made nearly two weeks ago. The four tweets when he made these brutal accusations against President Obama.
(....)
BLITZER: No, when he tweeted and I’ve got those four tweets. I’ve been carrying them around with me for almost two weeks.
(....)
BLITZER: What a rebuke of the President coming the day after his interview last night on Fox in which he doubled down on his accusations.
DAVID CHALIAN: Right. Yesterday on Fox he was still trying to worm his way out of the lie about wiretapping. On that word, saying that I’m going — you know — you're going to see in next couple weeks, something’s going to come out, show you surveillance more broadly. They say no. Remember these two Senators, the two House members that we heard from yesterday. That's half of what we call here in Washington the Gang of Eight. The people who are briefed with utmost intelligence from our intelligence community, so these are full authorities on this. They are now providing a path to the President where he can no longer justify not retracting those tweets, apologizing for accusing Barack Obama of a crime without any evidence whatsoever. I just think the White House is in such a pickle on this. They’ve been twisting themselves in a pretzel. The President looked like a — like a third grader in that interview yesterday trying to squirm out of a lie. This is a clear rebuke.
(....)
BLITZER: The President — he could simply say, you know? I made a mistake. I want to apologize to President Obama for smearing him the way I did, making this accusation against him. Let's move on. We're not hearing that.
CHALIAN: And we're not hearing that. It's just — it’s just not okay for the President of the United States to make this kind of unsubstantiated claim. He has a lot of things on his desk right now. ObamaCare repeal and replace, getting this travel ban through courts if the believes it will pass constitutional muster and fight that all the way through, getting his nominee, Neil Gorsuch, on the Supreme Court. There are — there's no end to the list of very big things that he should really be focusing on and pushing through on his agenda and this is a complete distraction from that.
