A Republican lawmaker called on President Donald Trump Friday to either provide evidence or apologize to former President Barack Obama for his so-far unverified claim that Trump Tower was wiretapped during the 2016 election.
“I see no indication that that’s true and so it’s not a charge I would have ever made. And frankly, unless you can produce some pretty compelling proof, then I think that President Obama is owed an apology in that regard,” Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole said.
“If he didn’t do it, (Trump) shouldn’t be reckless in accusations that he did,” he added.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman and the ranking Democrat on the committee said Thursday that they’ve seen no evidence of Trump’s accusation that he was wiretapped last year by his predecessor.
“We have not seen any evidence that there was a wiretap or a (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court order against Trump Tower or somebody in Trump Tower,” Ryan said in an interview Thursday on CNN’s “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer.
Rep. Charlie Dent also called Trump’s unverified claim “inexplicable.”
“That’s inexplicable,” the Pennsylvania Republican said Friday. “Apparently there is no evidence of proof or any basis in fact so I think you should simply retract it.”
Although White House press secretary Sean Spicer read an extensive litany of news reports from the podium Thursday that showed intelligence agencies’ interest in Trump’s activities, none of them actually corroborated Trump’s claim.
Despite that, Spicer said Trump is standing by his original tweets.
“He stands by it,” Spicer said, characterizing the Senate Intelligence Committee’s statement as not final. “They have yet to go through the information.”
This story has been updated.
