Former Obama chief of staff dismisses Trump wiretapping claim
Former Obama White House chief of staff Denis McDonough says he has “no idea” what President Donald Trump is talking about when he claims to have evidence that his predecessor wiretapped him.
“[W]e had a cardinal rule…in the White House, which is we would not under any circumstances get involved in any investigations one way or the other,” McDonought said Thursday on “CBS This Morning.”
“So I don’t know what he’s referring to. And it appears that the Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, people like [former] Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper and others have no idea what he’s talking about either.”
McDonough also criticized Republican attempts to repeal the Affordable Healthcare Act, popularly known as Obamacare.
“You know, General Jones was President Obama’s first national security adviser. He used to say—‘If you want it bad, you get it bad.’ And they seem to have gotten it bad,” McDonough said.
“They have a plan here that will push 24 million people out of health care, back into the kind of confused and…insecure state where they don’t have the peace of mind that comes from having health insurance and having their kids have health insurance.
So we think that’s a big mistake. So what I hope is that they go back to square one now and try to address what are some fixable problems in the existing program. Not try to throw the baby out with the bath water.”