2016 ELECTION/FBI/OBAMA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Over the last 72 hours, the President of the United States has leaned into a conspiracy theory that goes like this: During the 2016 presidential race, President Barack Obama — via the FBI — placed a ‘spy’ within Trump’s campaign for purely political reasons…There’s a tendency to write this latest Trump claim off as Trump being Trump. He has proven time and again that he is willing to stray from established facts in pursuit of a narrative that is more favorable to him — from the size of his inauguration crowds to the idea that Obama ordered a wiretap on him during the last presidential campaign. But the fact that this is what Trump does shouldn’t distract us from the allegations here: Donald Trump is saying his predecessor as president used the leading law enforcement entity in the country to spy on him because Obama/the ‘deep state’ didn’t want someone as unconventional as Trump to be president. To be clear: There is zero public evidence that Trump’s claims are anywhere close to the truth. What we know is that the FBI used a confidential human source to talk to several Trump campaign advisers, including Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, during the campaign. The bureau did so because it had concerns about conversations those two men had with Russians.”
-Chris Cillizza, “Don’t miss what Donald Trump is doing with his ‘spy’ allegations,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, May 25, 2018 5:51 pm