Thursday, August 23, 2018

Flip Flop: Walberg on Trump's Wiretapping Allegations


Link to nicely formatted, printable PDF of this report: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gobmrvwLayut_IPKufPzjfxK7QjBG6co/view?usp=sharing

Less than a month and a half after taking the office of President, in the pre-dawn hours of a Saturday, Donald Trump released this official White House statement to the world:

An alarming official statement from the new White House administration

To this day, there are still no substantiations for Trump’s allegations in that official White House message. Except, when people with legislative power make harsh, unsubstantiated rumors about people with no legislative power, who are perceived to be political opponents – That is very much McCarthyism in a nutshell.

Two months after that original White House statement, U.S. Congress member, Tim Walberg was asked about Trump’s wiretapping allegations at a constituent event.

Color Key to Highlights
Questions: Teal
Walberg’s Statements: Yellow

Thursday, May 11, 2017 (9:00 am)
Coffee Hour
Jackson, MI
Moderator: “I have two yes or no questions. The first is still about President Trump: ‘Do you think President Obama wiretapped President Trump; yes or no?’

Walberg: “No.”

[Constituents roundly applaud]

Walberg: “I hope you heard that answer.”

Heckler: “We did.”

Just as Walberg hoped, I heard his answer. And I thought it sounded perfectly reasonable. If I had been at the event, I would have applauded Walberg’s response as well. At that point, it had been two months since Donald Trump had made those allegations, and he had still not given any supportive evidence for them. Nor explained how he had been informed of such a thing, and why he associated all of it with McCarthyism.

Eight months later, Walberg flip-flopped. Walberg now concurred with Trump’s unsubstantiated wiretapping allegations. Walberg expressed his new position during a call-in segment to this radio program:

Thursday, January 25, 2018
The Steve Gruber Show
Lansing, MI
Gruber: “Let me ask you this. Do you believe in your opinion, was Trump Tower wiretapped, and wiretapped under false-pretenses with a FISA warrant that had no business being approved?”

Walberg: “Um, well – I guess the only comment I can make on that is from everything that is coming out now, when people laughed at Donald Trump when he suggested that his office had been tapped, and they poo-pooed it and said this is just a guy trying to get some publicity; It appears that Donald Trump may have the last laugh.

Gruber: “Here’s the real question - nexus of all of this – The real nexus of all of this: Does this all lead back to Barack Obama himself? Does it lead back to the previous occupant of the White House and the Oval Office? Was the former President involved in the rigging of the Clinton investigation, and the compromising of the FBI, and the wiretapping of Trump Tower, and the weaponizing of America’s intelligence community? Does this lead back to Barack Obama?

Walberg: “It would be my opinion that any person with an objective analysis of all that has gone on prior to what we’re seeing rolled out in front of us now, as well as what we’re seeing rolled out in front of us now, you’d have to say this did not happen without some involvement, or knowledge of, and approval by the former administration.

Gruber: “Is that a yes?”

Walberg: “That is a yes. And as I said, it is my opinion that with all the evidence that is coming out now, and all of the evidence that was suggested before, that something that has become as full-involved as what we’re seeing now, a President with an administration, and with controls and levers over FBI, Justice Department, etcetera, had to have known about it, but was very skillful in trying to keep it from appearing directly at his doorstep.Let me say it that way.”

Gruber: “But had to have known about it. There’s just - he had to have known about it.”

Walberg: “I would say, the amount of involvement that Barack Obama as President had in every area of life in Washington D.C., and very-very cleverly picking people who would do his work. I cannot believe that he didn’t know about it. But he was skillful in always making sure, that if it came close to him, it didn’t land in the Oval Office. Well, I think if people’s reasonable understanding would say if that was the case, then either the President was totally out of touch, or he was skillful in doing what was necessary to make sure that it didn’t fall directly on his office desk.”

Gruber: “Or he knew exactly what was going on.”

[The host then wrapped up the segment and went to commercials]

What was Walberg talking about when he said: with all the evidence that is coming out now? It has been eight months now since Walberg said that. At the time, and ever since, I have not found any evidence that indicated that Obama ordered a wiretapping of Trump. Walberg was not referring to classified evidence either, because he referred to it several times in that interview as evidence “coming out now”, and “what we’re seeing rolled out before us now”. Those are not descriptions used for classified evidence.

Again, what was Walberg referring to? Something provoked Walberg to flip-flop from a very confident opinion that he had eight months prior to that. And when he told us that position, which was contrary to the one Trump espoused, Walberg said that he hoped that we had heard it.

  • Is Walberg hopeful that we have now heard him flip-flop on the issue?
  • Is Walberg hopeful that we will want to hear him explain why he has flip-flopped?
  • Is Walberg hopeful that we will want to hear him cite his sources?

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