President Trump had a blunt response when reporters pressed him about whether he would retract his unfounded allegation that President Obama tapped his phones during the 2016 campaign: Blame it all on Fox News.
During a press conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Trump said the White House wouldn’t apologize for the unfounded allegation and instead said any blame rested with the Fox News commentator, Andrew Napolitano, who first raised it.
“We said nothing,” Trump said in response to a question from a German reporter. “All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television. I didn’t make an opinion on it.”
“You shouldn’t be talking to me,” Trump added. “You should be talking to Fox.”
Fox News, which has become markedly pro-Trump in its coverage, quickly broke with the president and said it had “no evidence of any kind” that he’d been wiretapped.
“Fox News cannot confirm Judge Napolitano’s commentary. Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now-president of the United States was surveilled at any time, any way,” one of its anchors, Shepard Smith, said. “Full stop.”
