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(WASHINGTON) President Donald Trump 's accusation that his predecessor ordered snooping of his communications has fallen apart, slapped down by the FBI chief and again by the Republican leading the House intelligence committee , a Trump ally. The president gave up on arguing that Barack Obama tapped his phones, and he doesn't give up on anything easily.

A look at how that sensational charge and a variety of other statements by the president on the failed "Obamacare" replacement bill, Russia, immigration and more met reality checks over the past week:

THE WIRETAP THAT WASN'T

Trump now says he never meant that Obama literally had his phone tapped. "When I said wiretapping, it was in quotes," he told Time magazine Wednesday." It is just a good description. But wiretapping was in quotes. What I'm talking about is surveillance."

THE FACTS: Several Trump tweets stated flat out that Obama tapped his phones, no quotation marks involved.

"I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!"

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

On a few occasions, he hung quotation marks around the word. Says one Trump tweet: "Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!"

House intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes said it was conceivable that U.S. surveillance of foreign entities might have picked up communications involving Trump aides or Trump himself through "incidental" collection." Trump claimed vindication "so that means I'm right" and Republican campaign offices sought to raise money from the episode, with the National Republican Campaign Committee telling people in an email pitch: "Confirmed: Obama spied on Trump."

But Nunes only confirmed the opposite, that Trump and Trump Tower were not targeted by the Obama administration.

"We know there was not a wiretap on Trump Tower," Nunes said early in the week. "That never happened," he said later in the week.

Originally posted here:
President Trump's Claim That Obama Wiretapped Him Basically Died This Week - TIME