Beating a dead horse interviewing 70-year-old President Donald Trump, CBS “Face the Nation” host John Dickerson peppered the president with questions about his March 4 Tweet that “Obama had his wires tapped.” While Trump never presented evidence that Trump Towers was tapped, there’s indisputable proof that the FBI on the urging of former National Security Director Susan Rice went to the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court [FISA] to tap the phones of White House foreign policy advisor Carter Page. When Comey testified March 20 before the House Intelligence Committee, he refused to confirm or deny the presence of a FISA court warrant. “You’re the president of the United States,” Dickerson told Trump. “You said ‘he was sick and bad’ because he tapped you,” said Dickerson, referring to the original Tweet about wiretapping Trump Tower.
Dickerson knows that Rice admitted April 8 that she got the names of Trump staffers from so-called incidental surveillance, where foreign actors get tapped together with U.S. citizens. “You can take it any way you want,” Trump told Dickerson, regarding his past Tweets. Since Trump rejected the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to campaign in Harrisburg, PA April 29, the mainstream media has been on the warpath. Trump wanted to give his version of the first 100 days, not listen to the media itemizing his failures. Dickerson went even more retro going back to the same old Hillary campaign and media talking points that Trump was somehow connected to a Russian plot to influence the 2016 election. Trump refers to media groups that push speculation about the 2016 election as “fake news.” Dickerson could have asked Trump real questions on the economy and North Korea.
Pushing the wiretap issue, Dickerson showed he’s more interested in provocation than reporting on anything current. “I am asking you,” Dickerson said, “ because you don’t want it to be fake news. I want to hear it from President Trump,” showing the same kind to contempt that pushed Trump to a campaign rally rather than the White House Correspondents’ dinner. Dickerson mentioned nothing about current provocations from North Korea, pushing the world closer to the brink. Trump’s said that he won’t take any option off the table, including nuclear war. You’d think Dickerson would want more information on that topic for his viewers than rehashing old Hillary talking points. With former National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and foreign policy advisor Carter Page under FBI surveillance, you’d think Dickerson could have asked some pressing questions.
Trump spent much of his Harrisburg speech ripping the mainstream media for pushing fake news. At the Correspondents’ dinner, many of the speakers refuted Trump’s idea of fake news, talking only about the First Amendment, while not acknowledging the media’s war against Trump. Dickerson represents the mainstream media’s attempts to discredit Trump, fixating on a two-month old Tweet that was clarified many times as more symbolic than literal. Tapping phones of Trump associates during and after the campaign should get the point across. Whether the monitoring was incidental or ordered by the FISA court, Dickerson should at least acknowledge that members Trump’s campaign were under surveillance. Dickerson says nothing about the FBI using paid Hillary opposition research as “probable cause” to get a FISA court to issue a surveillance warrant
If Dickerson sought a relationship with Trump, he should question how the FBI can use opposition research to justify a FISA court warrant. When you consider the chain-of-command for Hillary investigator Christopher Steele’s dossier, it’s astonishing that the media wouldn’t want to find out why the FBI would use such a spurious document. Dickerson instead antagonized Trump by accusing him about his false claims on former President Barack Obama. Yet, Obama’s former National Security Advisor Susan Rice admitted that she “unmasked” the names of Trump associateds picked up under incidental surveillance. Dickerson pressed Trump once too often, eventually getting Trump to end the interview. “OK, it’s enough. Thank you. Thank you very much,” said Trump, walking away from Dickerson. Dickerson looked like he wanted to bait Trump.
Dickerson’s interview with Trump revealed what’s wrong with the mainstream press: Asking politically charged questions to advance an agenda. Instead of asking Trump about pressing foreign and domestic policy questions, Dickerson baited Trump into a predictable response. It’s no wonder Trump prefers to spend his time away from Washington’s “gotcha” press. When Trump spoke to a partisan crowd in Harrisburg, he gave his own assessment of the first 100 days. Focusing on foreign policy successes and challenges, Trump talked up his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who’s working hard to rein in North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. He talked of how the courts defeated his efforts to keep terrorists from crossing U.S. borders. Whether it’s repealing-and-replacing Obamacare or working on border security, Trump showed he’s trying to keep campaign promises.
