Sen. John McCain called on President Donald Trump to either provide evidence of the Barack Obama administration wiretapping Trump Tower or retract his claim.
The claim came from the series of tweets by the President and was followed by a tweet stating “Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t voluntarily leaving the Apprentice, he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me. Sad end to great show.”
In the previous tweets, Trump accused former President Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower leading up to the election. The claim has faced scrutiny from both sides of the aisle as well as from the media.
Trump supporters and critics of the media have pointed to a Jan. 20 article from The New York Times as proof that Trump Tower was tapped. The headline of the publication’s Inauguration Day article reads “Wiretapped Data Used In Inquiry of Trump Aides,” but if you find the article on The New York Times website today, it reads, “Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates.”
The headline change reminded me of Winston’s jobin the dystopian novel “1984,” which was altering already printed articles so they aligned with the statements of the party. However, in the New York Times’ defense, the initial headline came across as substantiating the claim that Trump Tower was wiretapped. Despite not proving the claim about Trump Tower, the article stated information picked up from wiretaps and other intelligence collected overseas, a process that requires no warrants, has been used in an investigation into ties between Trump and Russia.
It’s a fact the government has the ability to tap the communications of nearly every person in the world, even the almighty Donald Trump. I’m going to assume that the President, who is in charge of directing intelligence agencies, was aware that such a high profile target was being tapped and that the tapping was done within the limits of the current laws. I’m also going to assume that Trump, who always presumes someone is listening in, would not leave any sort of trail that the government could use to incriminate him.
As far as I’m concerned, the entire situation is another example of Trump using 140 characters or less to play the media like a fiddle. With that being said, I’m glad it might bring attention to the issue of wiretapping.
The recent CIA leaks showed the government can hack into your smart devices in order to have eyes and ears on you, but who is really surprised?
We really shouldn’t have been surprised when whistleblower Edward Snowden reconfirmed the government was watching basically anyone they could. Other whistleblowers, such as William Binney, a former top NSA analyst and director, previously informed us of the Bush administration’s decision to gather information from American citizens shortly after 9/11. No American citizen is naive enough to think the lying, stealing, murdering government is going to respect our privacy unless we make them.
Sure, mass surveillance could help prevent terrorist attacks. I mean, look at all the bombings, school shootings and other crimes it has prevented. The real question is why our elected Congressional representatives, many of whom possess a great understanding of the law or are at least surrounded by those that do, have allowed their constituents’ civil liberties to be trampled on.
Thanks to the fear that possessed many Americans after 9/11, the USA PATRIOT Act passed through the Senate 98-1 and the House 357-66. The USA PATRIOT Act and its reauthorization, along with the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 and its reauthorization, are the main examples of legislation passed to strengthen the ability of our government to spy on anyone they please.
Where are the Republicans who fight for smaller government? Where are the Democrats who cherish civil liberties? After the Bush administration’s disgusting expansion of spying on American citizens, Obama ran on a promise to reform several aspects of the intelligence agencies’ practices. I guess eight years just wasn’t enough time.
Obama expanded several aspects that he promised to curtail. During its final days, the Obama administration expanded the power of the NSA to share harvested information with 16 other intelligence agencies.
Trump has expressed support for restoring the USA PATRIOT Act. However, if the American people were to effectively protest the surveillance state we currently live in — and by protest I don’t mean walking around with memes on posters and chanting nonsensical phrases, but action closer to the organized protests of the Civil Rights Era, when the protesters presented themselves in a respectable manner and made their goals clear — then perhaps President Trump, who wants so badly to be liked, will use his powers to restore the Fourth Amendment.
Until these acts are restored, we can place our hope in representatives such as Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders, who, despite being on opposite ends of the political spectrum, recognize the importance of privacy.
Matthew Hutchins is a 20-year-old petroleum engineering sophomore from Birmingham, Alabama.