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It may turn out the Weekly World News was right all along.

You remember that black and white tabloid, don't you? You'd see it in grocery store checkout lines, easily outgunning other reputable news sources like the National Enquirer and The Globe with its outlandish headlines: "Civil War Babies Found Alive at Gettysburg"; "I Married Bigfoot"; "12 U.S. Senators are Space Aliens!"

And now we have this, not from the now-online-only Weekly World News, but from the president of the United States: "How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!"

That's the "Baby Born with Tattoo of Solar System!" of presidential statements. It was, like your average Weekly World News headline, offered with no evidence.

The basis for Trump's weekend accusation that then-President Barack Obama tapped his phones seems to be an article on the website Breitbart, a conservative and slightly more substantive version of a grocery store tabloid. That article cited conservative radio host Mark Levin who strikes me as someone who would read the Weekly World News and say, "You know, they may be onto something" as its primary source.

As the Weekly World News might say: "Muslim Former President Wiretapped Trump From Secret Alien Madrasa!"

The bucket of bonkers that Trump cracked open over the weekend which, according to the New York Times and Washington Post, led FBI Director James Comey to take the remarkable step of asking the Justice Department to issue a statement refuting a sitting president's comments did have one happy outcome. It led to this paragraph in a story on the ABC News website, the most staggeringly crazy and entirely accurate paragraph ever written:

"Because the sitting president offered no evidence to back up his claim, it wasn't clear whether the tweet which was followed by four others taking on his predecessor, including one misspelling the word 'tap' was based on classified knowledge he received in his capacity as president, or on an article posted yesterday to the conservative Breitbart website."

Let that one roll around in your head a few times. No evidence. Misspelled "tap." Not clear if it was based on classified information (that the president was sharing on Twitter) or on a crackpot website report.

Yowza. (And I don't use that term lightly.)

We are in uncharted territory. This is "Farmer Shoots 23-Lb. Grasshopper"-level stuff.

Or, as any devoted Trump supporter or Russian Twitter bot would say: Is it?

There have been media reports of warrants from the secret FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Court being issued to monitor certain contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. If those reports are correct and James Clapper, former national intelligence director under Obama, flatly denied it Sunday it's possible that phones in Trump Tower or elsewhere were under surveillance.

But if that was the case, there would have been substantial evidence of a threat to national security, as FISA warrants don't come easily.

So just as I'd like to see the person who married Bigfoot, meet the Civil War babies found alive and eyeball the corpse of a 23-pound grasshopper, I'd also like to see the evidence that Obama tapped Trump's phones.

A statement from the White House in the wake of Trump's Weekly World News-style tweet storm called for a congressional investigation.

I completely agree. Let a congressional intelligence committee see the evidence to support the president's claims. Let the public see all the facts and, if there was surveillance, let's see why. Shine a light on those FISA warrants, if they exist.

If Obama did something wrong or illegal, as Trump claims, we have a right to know and he should be held accountable.

And while we're at it, let's see the evidence that Obama's birth certificate was fake a claim Trump made repeatedly without ever retracting and that 3 million to 5 million people voted illegally in the November election, as Trump has also claimed.

Let's see the evidence that Sen. Ted Cruz's father was with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Trump cited that information during the campaign, referring to reporting in another supermarket tabloid, the National Enquirer.

Let's see Trump's tax returns, which would clear up many of the suspicions regarding the president's connections to Russia. (Those suspicious have been reported on in dodgy newspapers like the New York Times, but not in any of the more reputable grocery store tabloids.)

And let's finally, after many years, get Congress to look into two bombshell Weekly World News reports regarding Hillary Clinton: "Hillary Clinton Adopts Alien Baby" and "Bill Catches Hillary with Space Alien!"

Where is this alien baby now? It could be threatening our national security as we speak.

And does Clinton still have her "NY love nest" where she spent "romantic nights" with the alien Bill caught her embracing? She served as secretary of state and could have become president. It's in the nation's interest to know if these intergalactic dalliances have compromised American interests.

If so, that would be bad (or sick). Congress must investigate.

Because at the moment, there's as much evidence of a Clinton/alien connection as there is of Obama-ordered wire taps.

Or, as President Trump prefers, "tapps."

Listen to Rex Huppke and WGN radio host Amy Guth discuss presidential politics each week on the "Guth and Huppke on Politics" podcast atchicagotribune.com/guthhuppkepodcast.

rhuppke@chicagotribune.com

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Investigate Trump's wiretapping claim AND HILLARY CLINTON'S ALIEN BABY! - Chicago Tribune

Several dozen students listened to Hillary Clinton speak about her own college experience at Wellesley and the value of learning from peers experiences and perspectives at a Fireside Chat in Kirkland House Friday.

Undergraduate members of the Instiute of Politics' Student Advisory Committee, some board members of the Harvard College Democrats, and five Kirkland students who received lottery tickets attended the chat. Jesse I. Shelburne 18 and Sharon Yang 18, the student president and vice president of the IOP, respectively, moderated the discussion with Clinton.

After her appearance in Kirkland House, Clinton took part in an interview later that day for the American Secretaries of State Project: Negotiation, Diplomacy, and Statecraft, a joint effort of the Law School, the Kennedy School, and the Business School.

Students who attended the Kirkland talk said the small size of the event made it feel particularly intimate, and that they admired Clintons optimism and the candor with which she spoke about her own formative experiences in college.

You never get a sense of who politicians are. But getting to hear Secretary Clinton talk about her life, and and her college life, was really really cool to see because you dont get to see that, said Christie F. Cheng 17, one of the five Kirkland residents who received a ticket through the lottery.

Id say the main difference between a big lecture and an informal chat was that even though she came in with certain ideas that she wanted to communicate, it wasn't a prepared speech, Cheng continued. It made the experience much more meaningful, and we became very aware that this was a privilege to hear her speak candidly.

Matthew Moore 19, the treasurer for the College Democrats, said it was powerful to hear about Clintons college years.

Her talking about her time at Wellesley, and how that shaped her, was something I had never heard from her. So it was interesting to hear how Hillary Clinton became Hillary Clinton, Moore said.

Reed T. Shafer-Ray 18, the legislative director for the Democrats, said Clinton was a big fan of putting down the phones and really trying to make good friendships.

He added that Clinton talked about how school isnt just about the classroom, you need to sometimes put the book down and talk to your classmates and that that is where you can get some of your most enlightening experiences.

The former Secretary of State also spent time talking about the continuing fight for women in politics, which Cheng said was powerful to hear.

Being at Harvard we probably have one of the biggest advantages [as women], and she spoke a lot about how it can be a brutal worlda mans world and that was really special, Cheng said.

Vice President of the College Democrats W. Tanner Gildea 19 said he admired Clintons humor throughout the discussion.

You would always hear that she was much more funny in person and that you just didn't see it on the campaign and that just showedwe were cracking up at some of the things she was saying, Gildea said. [We saw] that she is on her feet fighting and also able to make funny quips of her experience.

Staff writer Julia E. DeBenedictis can be reached at julia.debenedictis@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @julia_debene.

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The notion of girl power shouldnt be enough to keep every female Democrat worshipping at the altar of Hillary. But past and personal slip-ups that dont jibe with our current conception of sisterhood shouldnt be enough to keep us away, either.

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Clinton seems to be drifting into a familiar panicky pattern that forebodes future setbacks: her fondness for employing family consiglieri to do the dirty work, as if none of the stink will ever make its way back to her.

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At Harvard, Hillary Clinton Hosts 'Fireside Chat' with Students - Harvard Crimson

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Amanda Renteria, shown here in 2008, played basketball at Stanford before entering a career in politics.

Amanda Renteria found her calling in politics after she graduated in 1996 from Stanford, where she played third base for the softball team and walked on to the basketball team.

She received an MBA from Harvard and pursued public service, working for Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Debbie Stabenow. In 2008, Renteria was named Stabenow's chief of staff, making her the first Latina to hold that title in Senate history. In 2014, she decided to run for Congress herself in California's 21st district, but she lost to Republican incumbent Rep. David Valadao. Most recently, Renteria served as the national political director for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

Throughout her career, Renteria never strayed far from sports. She regularly played pick-up basketball while on The Hill (even putting up a few shots while in heels), and she says softball games between offices can get quite competitive.

Before participating in espnW's Campus Conversation at Stanford on Monday, Renteria spoke with us about sports, how she got into politics and what she's learned along the way.

espnW: How did you first start playing basketball?

Amanda Renteria: I grew up in a small, rural town, so we always had a basketball court available as one of the free things to do. It was kind of what people did: hang out at the courts. For me, I always have had a hard time watching sports -- I want to be in it. So that's kind of how it started, a bunch of kids were at the courts, and I said, "I could do this too."

espnW: At what point in your life did you feel drawn to politics?

AR: I studied politics when I was at Stanford. I got there when it was "The Year of the Woman." But I can't say it was politics as much as I linked it to leadership. Women leaders were breaking through, and the forum at that moment was the Senate. That was what pulled me into having my major be political science, but then, I didn't think about it as politics. It was women making ground in leadership, and I found that to be really interesting.

My whole window into politics was, how do we use public services to do the most public good? After I graduated from business school, that's what I was looking for when I went to go work for the City of San Jose. The experience I was having on the front lines in the budget office and in community centers made me realize the impact and strength of public services. They touch people's lives in a way that I had never experienced before. That was when I realized the importance of who leads and how their proposals touch people.

espnW: What lessons from your athletic career do you carry with you in your political one?

AR: The first is the teamwork aspect of it. In order to make anything in politics work, you need a diverse skill set. You need your communications people, your political people, you need your policies, so that was No. 1 on every campaign. You have to have a diverse team that works together.

The second, and I think this has been true of life in general, is that experience of being two down, and the ball is in your hand, or there's no time left and you're at the free throw line. What that feels like, and having to perform at that very moment. Every single time I give a big speech, whether I was a surrogate, or I'm on TV, or I was doing my own debates, having done that so many times, you know what it feels like. You also know how to visualize and be comfortable in those high pressure moments.

The last thing is knowing how much it takes to be good at what you do -- all the practice that you put in every single day before game day. That discipline to know that if you put in the hours, if you build relationships early, when it's time for it all to come through, you can get into the batter's box with confidence that you did all the prep work and practice.

espnW: What were some of the biggest challenges you faced as you ended your collegiate athletic career and transitioned into professional life?

AR: I missed pushing my body physically. To this day, it's why I love playing pick-up basketball. Especially today, in a world where we are always doing multiple things at the same time, when I'm playing pick-up basketball, there's only one thing I can be doing, and that's playing basketball. There aren't a lot of things where you're so singularly focused. People say basketball is hard and tiring, and I think it's so simple because it's clear that I'm just trying to put a ball into a basket. Life and work is so much harder.

The other piece that you just miss is friends and teammates and the collective group trying to reach a goal. When you first start a job, it's not automatic. You're not all on the same page. Everyone starts their job with different incentives and different reasons for being there, but it takes time for people to gel. For me, it took some time to realize that.

And then there's this realization that I'm not going to be on the court anymore. You're in a suit and you're at your desk, and you realize that your hightops are going to get dusty. Everything feels so different and you realize that you had something special. You're entering a new phase of your life, not just that sports is over, something has changed.

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Digital Editor: The Rise of Modesty Chic

Is modesty making a comeback? If the recent trend spearheaded by Muslim womens fashion is any indication yes. Burberry, DKNY, and other brands have released special Ramadan collections, Siraj Datoo writes at Bloomberg. Uniqlo has a line trumpeting traditional values. And a modest fashion show was held in London during Fashion Week. Perhaps we should be most surprised it took this long, says Datoo: In 2015, Muslim women are estimated to have spent $44 billion on modest fashion alone, according to a Thomson Reuters report. And its not just Muslims. I think we need to take Muslim out of it, popular Islamic fashion blogger Dina Torkia told Datoo. Im pretty sure every religion promotes modesty.

Investigative Journo: Media Ignores Clintons Russia Ties

Its certainly legitimate to look into Team Trumps ties to Russia, writes investigative reporter Peter Schweizer at Fox News. But the media focus throughout the campaign on Donald Trump contrasts sharply with the lack of such attention to Hillary Clintons own troubling Russia ties. For starters, Schweizer notes, Bill and Hillary Clinton received large sums of money directly and indirectly from Russian officials while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. Then theres the fact that the Clinton Foundation also scored $145 million in donations from nine shareholders in a Canadian uranium company ... sold to the Russian government in 2010. That deal, which ended up providing the Russians with 20 percent of US uranium, was approved by Hillarys State Department. Then theres John Podesta, who joined the board of an energy company just before a fund started by Vladimir Putin put millions in it.

From the Right: Now Liberals Miss Dubya

When George W. Bush criticized President Trumps attacks on the press, liberals from The Washington Post to The Guardian to ThinkProgress leapt to praise the 43rd president, notes Kim Strassel at The Wall Street Journal though only in the most self-serving way. Indeed, Strassel reminds readers of the excesses of Bush Derangement Syndrome while he was in office: He was compared to Hitler and terrorists, accused of racism, homophobia and sexism. Liberals claimed he was out to rip off the nations old and poor. He orchestrated conspiracies ranging from 9/11 to the spread of avian flu. Of course, as Strassel writes, none of this was true, but the goal of the media and the left from the start of the Bush presidency was to demonize and delegitimize the man and his agenda. That theyre now cynically using Bush to do the same to Trump should give pause.

Conservative Take: Campus Loonies Hurting Themselves

Four decades after City Journals Myron Magnet stopped teaching at Vermonts Middlebury College, the students shouted down a speech by conservative intellectual Charles Murray, showing the anti-intellectualism there hasnt abated. But the students will likely regret this one, says Magnet: As Murray argues in his most recent book, White American is split: There are the Middlebury kids and their ilk: moneyed, well-credentialed and the high-school grads or dropouts, whose low-skilled jobs have vanished, who either never marry or get divorced. It was the arrogance and entitlement of that first group that led the second to elevate Donald Trump to the presidency and threaten the elite status these Americans take for granted. So enjoy your run down the mountain today, students of Middlebury, Magnet warns. Nothing lasts forever.

Lawmakers: Crack Down on Iran-al Qaeda Nexus

The Obama administration appeased Iran, argue Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Michael McCaul, both Texas Republicans, in USA Today. And now President Trump should reverse that trend. He should designate the Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. Iran is the chief patron of Hezbollah and Hamas, but Tehrans long-standing support for al-Qaeda is what always seems to fly under the radar. According to the 9/11 Commission, Iran helped the 9/11 hijackers before the attack. And after the US invaded Afghanistan, some of al Qaedas top leaders fled to Iran, which refuses to bring them to justice. Therefore, Cruz and McCaul say, any engagement with Iran, such as further negotiations on the Obama-era nuclear deal, must address Tehrans harboring of al-Qaeda members.

Compiled by Seth Mandel

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The media ignores Clinton's Russia ties and other notable comments - New York Post

Since losing the presidential race, Hillary Clinton has kept a low profile. But that may be changing.

In one of her first major public appearances since the election, Clinton will be the featured speaker at a Houston luncheon on April 7 to benefit Annie's List, an organization that works to elect women to public office, officials announced on Monday. The event, which will honor Houston attorney Amber AndersonMostyn, will take place at the Marriott Marquis Hotel.

The noon luncheon will be preceded by a panel titled"Turning Harris County Blue." Clinton carried Harris County by a 12 percent margin over Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential race.

Annie's List organizers point out that although women comprise nearly half of the state's population, men hold 80 percent of the seats in the Texas legislature and in Harris County, men hold 70 percent of all public offices.

"Secretary Clinton and Annie's List understand that elections matter. This is why we are thrilled she's giving her time and voice to spend the day with Annie's List to help us build our war chest to elect more Texas women," Annie's List executive director Patsy Woods Martin said in a statement.

The luncheon is close to selling out, organizers said, but some tables are available, ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.

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Hillary Clinton reemerges with plans to headline Houston fundraiser - CultureMap Houston