Editor’s note: This commentary is by Bob Stannard, a former lobbyist, who is still an author and musician. This piece first appeared in the Bennington Banner.
[P]resident: OMG it says right here in Breitbart that Obama wiretapped my New York Hotel. I have to alert my followers. Where’s my phone?
Is it just me or is it beginning to appear as though our president is becoming unhinged? In what can only be viewed as one of the most remarkable accusations made by a sitting U.S. president against an outgoing president on Friday President Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama personally of wiretapping the Trump Hotel in New York City. He offered not one scintilla of proof to back up this claim.
By Saturday his equally perplexed staff were offering up all kinds of excuses for their late-night Tweeting boss, not the least of which was perhaps he had read about the wiretappings in Breitbart online magazine. You may recall that this ultra alt-right magazine’s former executive chair was Steve Bannon, the same guy who now sits down the hall from the president. Bannon harbors all kinds of strange, racist, paranoid views of the world and by most accounts is a perfect companion to our increasingly mentally unstable president.
As you probably know by now the law does not allow any president to wiretap citizens. We got rid of that practice after the other famously unstable Republican president, Richard Nixon, left office. Thus it seems that if the Breitbart story is true (and that’s a big “IF”) and Trump Towers really was bugged, then the president has a bigger problem; the courts would have had to issue a warrant, which means that there’s probable cause of some sort of wrongdoing.
And what might such wrongdoing entail? Oh, I don’t know, maybe colluding with the Russians to throw an election or going easy on leveraged debt? Who the heck knows? What we do know is that after serving only 24 days as national security adviser, Mike Flynn had to resign, because he lied about talking with the Russians about removing the sanctions imposed by Obama for Russia hacking our elections. It should be noted that Flynn would still be secretary had it not been for the incredible work of our free press.
All of this could go away quite easily if the president would simply release his tax returns.
Last week we learned that our top cop, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, lied to a Senate Committee when he said he had never met with the Russians. Oddly he was never asked if he had; he volunteered that he hadn’t and now has had to recuse himself from any further proceedings.
On top of all of this it’s come to light that the president’s son-in-law Jarrod Kushner and Flynn also met with the Russian ambassador in NYC where they brought the ambassador in the back door. Then, of course, there’s Paul Manafort, Trump’s second campaign manager who is completely entangled with the Russian government.
The connections between our president and Russia have become too glaring to ignore. The only question now is not if, but how do we investigate? The Republicans would prefer to investigate on their own, behind closed doors and off the record. Big surprise. The Democrats are calling for a special prosecutor and would like to see the hearings televised on huge screens in Times Square.
All of this could go away quite easily if the president would simply release his tax returns. If, as he says, there is no financial relationship with Russia, his returns would back up that claim. The bigger problem is that this president has difficulty with telling the truth and/or taking responsibility for anything he’s ever done. All of his problems are of his own making.
It’s only been six weeks and we’re being subjected to a political scandal. President Obama was able to make it through eight years without having a major scandal or anyone indicted. It appears as though we might be setting a new record. Put your phone down Mr. President and start acting presidential.
