Spicer slams media coverage of Russia, wiretapping claims

White House press secretary Sean Spicer blasted the media for its coverage of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and President Trump’s claim that the previous administration wiretapped him.

During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Spicer said it wasn’t covered when officials briefed on the Russian involvement in the election came out and said there was “no involvement to their knowledge between the Trump campaign and Russia.”

“Not one of them ran a story. They all sat by no matter what they said, no matter how many people had been briefed by the FBI, they continued to push this false narrative,” Spicer said of the media.

“It’s amazing how many times the mainstream media continues to bring up the story that has been debunked by every single intelligence official and member of Congress who has been briefed by the FBI.”

{mosads}He said the mainstream media holds on to the narrative that there was contact between the Trump campaign and Russia because they realize “it clearly gets them some kind of coverage of ratings.”

“Then, when it comes to the other side of the aisle, they ignore the reporting that’s been done by outlets, by the New York Times and others, about the wire — the surveillance that occurred in the 2016 election,” Spicer said.

The president claimed in a series of tweets earlier this month that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower before the election. 

“I think that when you start looking into all of these things that occurred during 2016, in terms of surveillance, which have been widely reported, I think the question is, what did happen then, who was being looked at?” Spicer said.

“There is clearly something there and I think it is incumbent upon the House and Senate Intelligence committees … to look into these situations and find out what did go on.”

When asked whether he believes much of the mainstream media doesn’t want Trump to succeed, Spicer said he thinks so.

“Because I think that if you look at a lot of these surveys, most of them, or at least a good number of folks in the mainstream media, aren’t conservative,” he said.

“They’re not open-minded. They’re liberals, … survey after survey shows that the majority of reporters lean to the left.”

The president and his team often attack the media, accusing reports of biased and dishonest coverage against him. The president often refers to certain outlets and stories as “fake news.”