President obama thats because top officials that have access to classified information have no evidence of that claim. Paul ryan, i asked him directly, do you believe that President Trump was wiretapped by obama and his administration. He said no, no such wiretap existed. Two Top Republicans on the senate, richard burr, mark stone said there is no surveillance of trump tower. During his feisty press conference sean spicer cited devon dev devon nunes suggested that perhaps during broad surveillance some of Donald Trumps communications were picked up. I asked devin nunes if there is any chance that President Trumps communications were picked up, and he said no and he doesnt believe that donald trump was wiretapped under the orders ever president obama. You said i dont believe. I dont believe that the president ordered a physical wiretap of trump tower. What do you make of the if its a physical wiretap or other surveillance activities, which is the question. Ed to is we want to make sure no surveillance activities were used for purposes. Do you have any reason to suspect that any of these picked up any communications at all. Other than general flynn, we dont. Don, this comes ahead of a very, very highly anticipated meeting here on monday. James comey, the fbi director, will be among the witnesses testifying in the first public hearing of the first meeting of the house Intelligence Committee, which is having an investigation into meddling by russia, Trump Campaign, during the elections. James comey will get asked about this wiretapping question. And adam schiff, the top democratic on the committee, telling me today that he is he believes that comey will back down this question, rebut President Trump on this issue, and say that there were no wiretaps of trump tower under the orders of barack obama. So well see what comey eventually says. But a lot to look forward to next week as the story continues to linger. Done. Manu raju, thank you very much. Before we go down this rabbit hall of people pretended that the president said are intending something other than said, let me be clear. The president put out false information and over the last few weeks, fewer and fewer people have been willing to defend him. For those remaining who are inclined to make excuses for the president or buy into his miss interpretation, lets put the president s words for everyone to see, for you to see. Tweeted, terrible, just found out that obama had my wires tapped just before the victory. Nothing found. This is mccarthyism. It refers to a former senator Joseph Mccarthy what bock in the 1950s systemically accused people of subversion, of being communists without evidence, destroying countless lives. Mr. Trump then wrote, is it legal for a sitting is president to be wiretapping a race for president for a new election. Turned down by a new court order. New low. Accusing the president of a federal crime. Then he writes, i bet a good lawyer could make a good case out of the fact that president obama was tapping my phones in october just prior to election. A good lawyer implies that he has a legal case, some facts implied. The word fact implies that he has the goods to back it up. He wrote, tapping my phones, not surveilling my people. He wrote tapping my phones. Then he writes, how low has president obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process . This is nixon watergate, bad or sick guy. He compares president obama to a president who was impeached in one of the biggest political scandals ever, and he did it with no proof and now has the gall to say it with a straight face that he said something other than what he said. Maybe you want to believe the president because this is america and in america this comes with a sacred trust. We respect the trust and the holder. But do they respect the office, do they respect us to give us the truth . Here is sean spicer, the president s press secretary today. Yesterday you said you were extremely confident that the house and Senate Intelligence committees would ultimately vicinity indicate the president s allegation of trump tower was wiretapped. As im sure youve seen the Senate IntelligenceCommittee Said they see no indication trump tower was the subject of surveillance. That seems to be a pretty blanket statement. Whats your reaction . Well, i think there are several things. I would also its interesting to me that just as a point of interest when one entity says one thing that proves that claims one thing, you guys cover it awed ad nauseam. When devin nunes said there was no connection to russia, crickets. Now the house Intelligence Committee and the senate here is a direct quote, jonathan. I think its very possible, end quote. Thats what he said that the president s communication could have been swept up in collection. He said i saw no indication of wiretapping. I think the president has been very clear when he talked about this last night, when he talked about wiretapping he meant surveillance and there have been incidents that have occurred. Devin nunes couldnt have stated it more beautifully. You choose not to cover that par, when tom cotton went out, burr went out and devin nunes you. You said where was your passion and your concern when they said there was no connection to russia, crickets from you guys. At the end of the day hold on. Hold on. Im making a point. The point is this, number one, its interesting when evidence comes out and people briefed on russian connection come out and say there is nothing that they have seen that proves a connection, you choose not to cover that, you dont stop the narrative and you continue to perpetuate a false narrative. When he said quote, i think there is no evidence this happened. When he said you dont cover that part. But lets go through what we do know, okay . Hold on, hold on. Let me im trying to answer your question, jonathan, if you can calm down. If you look at what the New York Times reported on january 2017, quote, in its final days the Obama Administration has expanded the power of the National Security to share Global Information with the governments other 16 Intelligence Agency before applying privacy laws. The new rule nsa gathered by the most powerful Surveillance Administration largely unregulated by wiretapping laws. When sara carter reported, the intelligence gathered in secret, separately the Obama Administration amended a longstanding executive order allowing information intercepted through fisa warrants to be shared by a wider audience and 16 intelligence offices, it was spread throughout briefings to scores of workers and leaks began to appear in news media organizations often in stories lacking context of how National Investigations are actually concluded. Fox 3rd, fox chief anchor bret bier said, quote, Intelligence Surveillance court to monitor communications involving donald trump and several other campaign officials. Then they got turned down. Then in october, then renewed it and a wiretap at trump tower with some russian banks. Surveillance courts get shut down i want to jonathan, you can follow up. A judge says no go to monitoring trump tower. They go back in october. They get a fisa grant. This is a monitoring of communities that they believe leads to russian leads. The Investigation Continues and we dont know it. On november 11, 2016 days after the election, heat streheat sto sources with links to the Intelligence Community that the fbi was sought and granted a fisa in october. Sean hannity said on fox, protections are put in place to protect americans that are not under warrants, and, by the way, their identities are protected. Their Constitutional Rights are to be protected. This was not the case with general flynn, because it was given to intelligence officials and releaked this information, which is a felony to the press. Which is a felony. So, sean, despite the findings of the Senate Intelligence committee there is not a finding. There is a statement today. Two days ago the department of justice asked for an additional week. The statement clearly says that at this time that they dont believe that. They have yet to go through the information. The department of justice as you know has not supplied this. But i just read out to you. Its interesting when the New York Times reports hold on. I let you do the whole answer. Thank you, i appreciate it. Are you saying that the president still stands by his allegation that president obama ordered wiretapping or surveillance of trump tower despite the fact that the Senate IntelligenceCommittee Says they see no indication it happened . Does the president stands by the allegation. No, first of all, he stand by it. But youre mischaracterizing it and what happened today. Thats exactly from the statement. I know that. But at the same time they acknowledge they have not been in contact with the department of justice. But again, i go back to what i said at the beginning its interesting how hold on. At the same time where were you coming to the defense of the same Intelligence Committee when they said there was no connection to russia. You didnt seem to report it then. No. Hold on. You want to comment and you want to perpetuate. I did report that clapper said that. When those individuals gone out time and time again. When chairman nunes said that that didnt exist, that got zero reporting and he went out and said its possible. You dont include that in the question mark. The bottom line is the president said last night there will be Additional Information coming ford. There are tons of media reports that something was going on during the 2016 election. Where was the question of the New York Times or other outlets when this was going on. Do you believe hell be vindicated. I believe he will. You were quoting sean hannity there, and the house i get youre going to cherrypick. Youre citing sean hannity you tend to overlook all the other sources because i know you want to cherrypick it. No, no, but you do. Where was your concern about the New York Times reporting . We have done plenty of reporting on all of this, sean. You want to cherrypick one piece of commentary. Of the connection of the president to the associates has been looked at. How do you know all this and how are you the expert on this. Its been looked at. How do you know its been looked at. Im failing to understand. Can you tell mu how you know that this has quote, been looked at. You are asking me you made a statement, all of this has been looked at. All of the out lets. When your outlets say it sounds like during the context of that intervention there may have been intercepted communications the house Intelligence Committee said that, we have reported that, and others have reported that on our air and other publications. Sean, the question youre refusing to answer is whether or not the president i did not. I just said it to jonathan. I didnt refuse. You have a senate and house Intelligence Committees, both leaders from both panels say they dont see evidence of wiretapping, how how can the president continue to say you mischaracterized what chairman nunes said. To suggest that, youre stating unequivocally you are saying if its literally the president said clearly when he referred to wiretapping he was referring to surveillance. It sound like, sean, what you and the president are saying, we dont mean wiretapping anymore, because thats not true anymore. No, thats not what is going to be next . Jim, i think thats cute. But at the end of the day weve talked about this three or four days. What the president said wiretapping in quotes. He was referring to broad surveillance and youre going back. We talked about this several days ago. The bottom line the investigation has not provided all of the information. When it does were talking about the reporters not the conversations with the fbi director. The president said more will come out. There is widespread reporting that throughout the 2016 election there was surveillance that was done on a variety of people. There was an investigation going on on whether there was contacts between the president and the russian government, of course, there will be some you believe you have all this information. Youve been read in all of this things. I havent read by the fbi youre coming to conclusions for a guy that has zero intelligence well give me some credit. Ill give you some. A little intelligence, maybe. Clearance. I wasnt done. Clearance. Those two maybe both. Come on. Those two panels have spoken with the fbi director and told there is no evidence of this. I think this question has been asked and answered, jim. Its interesting you jump into all these conclusions what they have, what they dont have, and you seem to have all the answers, there has been a ton of reporting. In a week or jim, i think there has been a vast amount of reporting which i just detailed about activity that was going on in the 2016 election. There was no question there was surveillance techniques used throughout there by a variety of outlets concluded. When you ask those two people whether or not chairman nunes said, when you take it literally, the president has been very clear, he didnt mean specifically wiretapping. He had it in quotes. So i think to fall back on that is a false premise. Thats not what he said. He was very clear when he talked about that yesterday. Did anyone see Billy Madison the game show scene. Everyone in the room is dumber for listening to that. I hope youre not dumber. Were just providing information. Just to be clear, no one mischaracterized what the senate intel said. Based on the information we were presented we see no evidence that the trump tower was surveilled either before or after 2016. Senator richard burr and senator mark warner. Nixon was not impeached. He resigned before he was impeached. I wrote that. I apologize for this. Can you do the same, mr. President . Up next what was it like inside the Briefing Room for journalists today, including senior cnn analyst jim acosta, who will join me. singing were no strangers to love i love that hey, i know a bunch of people whod like that. Whos that . The internet loves what youre doing. So build a site in under an hour. Start for free at godaddy. Run around and desert you announcer get on your feet for the nastiest bull in the state of texas. My advice for looking get your beauty sleep. And use aveeno® absolutely ageless® night cream with active naturals® blackberry complex. Younger looking skin can start today. Absolutely ageless® from aveeno®. The White House PressSecretary Sean Spicer in a combative briefing with reporters defending President Trumps false allegation that he was wiretapped by president obama. I want to bring in cnn Senior Correspondent jim acosta, and michael c. Bender, the White House Reporter for the wall street journal. Man, you guys have a tough job lately. Jim, i was watching you. Its tough. Youre going to have to hire a food taster. What was it like to be there . Well, you know, it sort of feels like i go in there and i dont know what to expect honestly. I think there was one moment where during the briefing today sean spicer was, you know, saying to me that he has zero intelligence, and then he add on to that, and zero intelligence clearance. Which i guess the second part is true. I like to think i have a little bit of intelligence. Honestly, don, in all seriousness, were dealing with an administration unlike any that weve ever dealt with before. Obviously you have a president who at times is not dealing with reality, he is tweeting out things like former president Obama Wiretapped him at trump tower. This is on top of his false claim about there being millions and millions of people voting illegally in this country. Thats on top of the claim that his inaugural crowd size was larger than president obamas and we had this conversation it seems, don, every other week, maybe every other week, whats going on with President Trump. And the question that i have, and it really go to the heart of where we are as a nation right now, can President Trump do this for another month, two months, three months . Can we all do this . Are we all going to be chasing down . Maybe by tomorrow or on monday, he will pull this back or there will be another explanation, but we all know there will be a farfetched claim, tall tale news of the week. And my question is how long can this continue . How long can sean spicer keep it up is my thing . Yeah. Today his response to your question and the other reporters in the room like mike, other reporters there, was to filibuster and then to read news reports by the away he calls fake news, but then hes using the fake news reports as something is going on so the president who believes the news is fake should believe it. And then accused him of a federal crime because of the news reports. It makes absolutely no sense. As i said before, i feel dumber for having listened to the press conference. Mike, you were at the briefing today. What was your impression of what the press secretary was saying and how he conducted himself . It just never it continues to get bizarre. Its a scary question that jim is asking. Ive been covering trump since 2015 and ive been asking that question, how long can this continue, sinc