Axelrod: Trump ‘kicking up dust only adds to suspicions’

Former Obama adviser David Axelrod slammed President Trump on Saturday for his claim that the former president ordered a wiretap of Trump Tower last year, calling Trump’s claim an effort to distract from his own scrutiny.

“This seems ‘nutts.’ Frantic way in which @realDonaldTrump is kicking up dust only adds to suspicions and the need for full public reckoning,” Axelrod wrote on Twitter.

This seems “nutts.” Frantic way in which @realDonaldTrump is kicking up dust only adds to suspicions and the need for full public reckoning. https://t.co/xZn2CHgXSQ

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) March 4, 2017

The former Obama strategist was responding to a series of tweets Trump posted Saturday morning alleging that former President Barack Obama wiretapped his phone lines during the 2016 presidential campaign.

How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

{mosads}Trump did not provide any evidence to back up his claims, and an Obama spokesman called them false. The spokesman said that no White House official ordered the surveillance of any American, let alone Trump.

Axelrod, a Democratic strategist, seemed to suggest Saturday that Trump was seeking to distract from reports about his aides’ communications with Russian officials and probes about potential Russian ties.

Axelrod went on to note that many Democrats had pushed the Obama administration to disclose more during Trump’s campaign, adding that such a wiretap would have been approved by a court “for a reason.”

One irony of @realDonaldTrump Tweet storm–is that many Dems were furious w/@BarackObama for not disclosing more about probe DURING race.

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) March 4, 2017

If there were the wiretap @realDonaldTrump loudly alleges, such an extraordinary warrant would only have been OKed by a court for a reason.

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) March 4, 2017

Trump’s bombshell allegation Saturday comes as his young administration faces renewed questions about his aides and allies’ potential ties to Russia.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday recused himself from any federal investigation into Russian intervention in the election after it was revealed he twice spoke with Russia’s ambassador during the campaign last year, something he did not disclose during his Senate confirmation hearings in January.

Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was also revealed to have spoken with Kislyak. Flynn resigned last month amid revelations that he discussed sanctions with the ambassador in the month before Trump took office and misled Vice President Pence and others about the talks.

While it is not unusual for campaign officials to speak with foreign diplomats, the Trump administration had repeatedly denied that such contacts had taken place.

The U.S. intelligence community concluded late last year that the Kremlin had interfered in the presidential election to help Trump. Russia’s role in the election and the president’s and his aides’ ties to Moscow are the subject of ongoing investigations.