NYT: Trump Didn't Know How FISA Worked Before Making Obama Wiretap Claim

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo



By ALLEGRA KIRKLAND Published APRIL 14, 2017, 11:14 AM EDT

President Donald Trump waited until after publicly accusing his predecessor of wiretapping his campaign headquarters to ask aides how Barack Obama would have been able to obtain a warrant to do so, the New York Times reported Thursday.

According to the Times’ article, which chronicled Trump’s steep learning curve in the Oval Office, the President did not understand the system that governs the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Obama would have needed to ask his Justice Department to request a FISA warrant to eavesdrop on a U.S. building like Trump Tower, which the court would have only granted if there was substantial evidence that the individuals that would be under surveillance were working as agents of a foreign power.

In his explosive pre-dawn tweets on March 4, Trump alleged that Obama had his “wires tapped” ahead of the election.

Despite a total lack of evidence, Trump’s aides backed that wild claim, with White House counselor Kellyanne Conway telling “Fox and Friends” that as President, Trump “has information and intelligence that the rest of us do not.”

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-reportedly-didnt-know-fisa-worked-before-obama-wiretap-allegation

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The Daily 202: Trump doesn’t know much about history. It’s making his on-the-job training harder.

By James Hohmann April 14 at 11:25 AM

THE BIG IDEA: Donald Trump believed he could convince China to pressure North Korea to stop its nuclear activities. Then President Xi Jinping tutored him on the history of the region.

“After listening for 10 minutes, I realized that it’s not so easy,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, recounting the session at Mar-a-Lago. “You know, I felt pretty strongly that they had a tremendous power over North Korea. But it’s not what you would think."

This comment is funny because, in 2011, Trump claimed that he has read “hundreds of books about China over the decades,” including works by Henry Kissinger, American journalists and Chinese novelists. Looking to do more business with Beijing, he provided a list of 20 books about China to Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, that he said had helped him understand the country, its politics and its people. “I know the Chinese. I've made a lot of money with the Chinese. I understand the Chinese mind,” Trump said six years ago. His list had some surprising titles on it, including “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.”

Color me skeptical that Trump has read anything by Amy Chua.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/04/14/daily-202-trump-doesn-t-know-much-about-history-it-s-making-his-on-the-job-training-harder/58f06ba2e9b69b3a72331e84/?utm_term=.8530a6cd483a&wpisrc=nl_daily202&wpmm=1

[Achilleaze]

1. ignorant republican draft-&-tax dodgers are deplorable

[Tanuki]

2. And Kellyanne Conway is worse. As an attorney and GOP insider,

she knew damn well that Trump's claim was wrong but she went on tv and kept it going, pretending that it was based on inside info not available to us peons. She is a despicable liar and thought nothing at all of slandering President Obama.

[rickford66]

5. Imagine what else he doesn't know. Maybe everything ??

[Hortensis]

30. Most knowledgeable observers think that is the case.

At 69 the man literally had no idea what the president could and could not do, including believing he could get rid of journalists and close down newspapers that displeased him. He believed himself when he said our generals were all stupid and he naturally knew more because he was so smart. Remember, he was in Scotland during the Brexit vote and had absolutely NO idea that a major part of the crisis was that Scotland voted to stay in the EU? It's believed that he hasn't read a book since college, and likely not then.

President Donald Trump, in an interview with Fox Business, said he informed Chinese President Xi Jinping about the air strikes he authorized in Syria over the "most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you've ever seen" at his ocean-side club and that the communist leader was "enjoying it."

"I was sitting at the table. We had finished dinner. We're now having dessert. And we had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you've ever seen and President Xi was enjoying it," Trump said, before telling interviewer Maria Bartiromo he was told the strike was ready to go.

Trump added that he told Xi that the United States had "just fired 59 missiles ... heading to Iraq," incorrectly identifying the country he was striking when relaying the story to Bartiromo.
Of Xi, Trump said, "And he was eating his cake. And he was silent."

That's easy to believe!

This man has a serious mental disorder, an important manifestation of which is what a bunch of people have reported as a cripplingly short attention span. Another, that his pathological degree of ignorance means he is extremely malleable.

Interesting to speculate, how did the president of China prepare to woo and influence a president who can at best only understand all issues in relation to himself and to whom they also have to be presented very briefly and in the simplest of terms? Did he practice how to schmooze Trump and expect Trump to turn all topics to bragging about himself? He's incompetent if he did not, and he's not incompetent.

[mpcamb]

31. "At 69 the man literally had no idea what the president could and could not do" Exactly!

Which is why every misstep he takes should be immediately taken to court and argued.
Instead the press, and usually the horror-stricken rest of us, stand there agape.
Instead, we should legally challenge every move he makes since so many are unconstitutional or not in the realm of presidential fiat.

[Hortensis]

33. Sounds great... How to legally determine "misstep," though?

And under what law is it illegal?

Certainly, promising us all that he would give us much better insurance coverage and that we would pay less for it (!) was what would be either a bald-faced lie by a normal person or a misstep by a megalomaniac who had no idea he was promising that would be impossible even for someone of his great abilities. Both unactionable.

On the plus side, Obama's organization of lawyers is busy challenging the termites working from within the government to destroy it, including dismantling the procedures by which it functions. When those do something illegal, they are being pounced on.

[Blanks]

3. Yeah, the FISA court is more complicated than he thought. Eom

[LuckyLib]

4. Of course he had no idea how FISA worked -- why would we think otherwise?

He doesn't read, doesn't surround himself with folks who know anything, and flaps his jaw with complete blather on any given topic. He needs to be called on it.

[Sunlei]

15. Republicans in inner loop really handle his personality & learning disabilities well.

They've fully investigated him, know what he "needs", what "buttons" to push. I think he's easy for Republicans to manage.

[SharonAnn]

35. There's so much that he doesn't know.

[tblue37]

37. And doesn't listen to the people who do know something. nt

[irisblue]

6. That man is so ignorant.

About almost everything.

[maxsolomon]

7. OJT is not how the Presidency is supposed to work

especially when you're a fucking braggart who was talking a ton of shit about your skills.

Our president is a fucking clown. I'm a Constitutional Scholar in comparison. Please let this end after 1 term if not sooner.

[Sunlei]

17. The mans a goldmine for Republican special interests across America.

Republican party will hang on to him as long as possible. Pence is ready to step-in whenever needed. He already does all a Presidents 'real' work.

[lark]

8. Color me surprised if drumpf has read anything other than Hitler.

That's the only book we know he read at night, just about every night for 10 years, per Ivana. He probably had some minion read the books and give him a paragraph summation. That's about the limit of his attention span and intellect.

[Snarkoleptic]

9. This on-the-job.training could get us all killed.

Arrrgghhhh!

[JenniferJuniper]

10. God, he's stupid.

[ProudLib72]

11. What a dumbass!

His dumbassness is proportional to the size of his actual ass. YUUUGGGEEE!

[UltravioletDingo]

12. Why am I not surprised?

[muntrv]

13. What does he not know and when does he not know? Those are the questions.

[Sunlei]

14. free basic college classes for trump, that Republican needs an education.

[Blue_Tires]

16. Just another huge scandal that will Trump will get a pass on

Because we've started to accept this madness as "Just another day in the Trump regime"

If Obama was this shamelessly ignorant of policy/procedure; if Michelle was persuading her husband to conduct airstrikes because"her heart told her to", Republicans would be drafting articles of impeachment as we speak...

[bora13]

18. pandering

to his base(ball-size-brain supporters)

[Honeycombe8]

19. Comey went further than that, even. He said a President CANNOT wiretap any American

citizen. It's theoretically possible for a President to ASK one of the two departments/agencies to wiretap someone, but it seems very unlikely, SINCE THE PRESIDENT IS A POLITICAL FIGURE and not part of any investigative area of our government.

In other words, no DOJ or intel agency would act on a request from a politician to wiretap an American citizen. Their agencies would have to have EVIDENCE OR PROBABLE CAUSE before even asking a Court to issue the subpoena. And that comes from the DOJ and intel agencies themselves...the President would not have any independent evidence of that.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

20. Trump doesn't know how a lot of things work

Trustafarians tend to be that way

[Nitram]

21. It has been obvious from the very beginning thatTrump had no idea how permission to wiretap

is obtained, nor did he know about the independence of the FBI and the Justice Department from the President. He didn't know that China has not been manipulating their currency for years. He didn't know that you can't ban people of a particular religion from entering the US. He didn't know that Obamacare has been working for millions of Americans. He didn't know that Social Security is paid for by workers' salaries. The list of things Trump doesn't know about history, his own government and the law is endless.

[sdfernando]

23. Its easier to list the things he knows. Here, I'll start.

Here is the list of things he knows:

[maddiemom]

24. But he DID promise to regain all of the respect of the world that was lost during the Obama years!

That was just a part of MAGA. He's been barely three months into the job. It will take him at least a year to whip all the other world leaders into shape. They just aren't used to his style yet, I can tell you that!

[Angry Dragon]

22. ignorant idiot

being ignorant is okay because you just do not know

being an idiot is unacceptable ....... because you just do not want to know

[calimary]

25. That side has used that argument before.

The Kellyanne CONjob statement that he sees information we don't (therefore we must just trust him).

The bush/cheney cabal pushed that one like crazy about Saddam's mythical WMD.

The instant I hear that crap pushed at me, I automatically assume they're trying to pull a fast one.

[Nitram]

26. Of course, they always assumed they knew more than Obama did during his presidency.

It only works for Republican presidents.

[jazzcat23]

29. Oh yes,

And does anyone remember how much they complained about Obama not having ENOUGH experience for the job? Well, this mango-moron has NONE! He doesn't know anything about anything. Why couldn't people realize that before they voted for the twit? But anyway, last night Mcturtle's out there talking about his learning curve, right? Well, they didn't do that for Obama! How I miss that man!

[Thor_MN]

27. Trump doesn't know how most things work - He is a fucking idiot.

[onetexan]

28. Clueless Agent Orange doesn't know how anything works for that matter

[Marthe48]

32. He's a meat sack

a big fat piece of lard who knows nothing about anything. He attracts venal, soulless creatures willing to sell out the human race for cash and vapid appearances on tv.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

34. Doesn't read books? Tony Schwartz told everyone months ago!

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all

But Schwartz believes that Trump’s short attention span has left him with “a stunning level of superficial knowledge and plain ignorance.” He said, “That’s why he so prefers TV as his first news source—information comes in easily digestible sound bites.” He added, “I seriously doubt that Trump has ever read a book straight through in his adult life.” During the eighteen months that he observed Trump, Schwartz said, he never saw a book on Trump’s desk, or elsewhere in his office, or in his apartment.

I personally think it's time for all Presidential candidates to pass a very difficult aptitude test before they're even allowed to run for office! We already have such tests for various kinds of professions, like the bar exams for lawyer, yet we don't have such testing for the most powerful job in the country?!

[Ilsa]

36. So he gave Xinhua a list of twenty book jackets

he's read. I bet someone read the covers to him or provided a three sentence summary.

[EarthFirst]

38. As John Dean pointed out recently in a NYT piece:

That is what troubles him about Mr. Trump and his political advisers, among them his chief political strategist, the media executive Stephen K. Bannon. “I’m not sure Trump, or Bannon, or whoever is guiding that place, has figured out all their powers,” he said. “The incompetence is the only thing giving me comfort at the moment.”'