Trump Admits He Doesn’t Have Tapes Of His Meetings With Comey, Which Surprises No One
Anyone who’s been following the Comey hearings has heard of Trump’s claim that he had recordings of his conversations with the ex-FBI director, as said on Twitter.
James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
So it should come to no surprise to anyone that these tapes don’t actually exist. Today, over a month after Trump made the claim, he admitted that he didn’t own any recordings of the conversations between the two.
With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017
…whether there are "tapes" or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017
So basically, Trump never knew if tapes existed, but he also didn’t know if they didn’t exist. Which is a pretty bizarre way to publicly threaten someone, if you ask me.
Still not clear to me if the best case scenario was Trump secretly recording or Trump lying about recording in order to threaten someone.
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) June 22, 2017
Still not clear to me if the best case scenario was Trump secretly recording or Trump lying about recording in order to threaten someone.
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) June 22, 2017
We need a definitive, on the record explanation for why the president made the threat in the first place, if there are no tapes.
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) June 22, 2017
Why would the president make a threat like this? Is it because Comey isn’t telling us something, or is it because he wants people to think Comey isn’t telling us something so that people would lose faith in the ex-FBI director? Because even Comey seemed comforted by the idea that these recordings might’ve existed, which doesn’t exactly look great on Trump.
"Lordy, I hope there are tapes."—former @FBI Director Comey #ComeyTestimony pic.twitter.com/WodO0lNlKM
— Ron Pragides (@mrp) June 11, 2017
And, another thing: why didn’t he just tell us that he didn’t have the recordings, oh, I don’t know, a month ago?
There were never Comey tapes, something the president could have said at any time.
— Ray Locker (@rlocker12) June 22, 2017
According to journalist Timothy L. O’Brien, this isn’t the first time Trump has said he had recordings and then later changed his story after he was asked under oath if it were true. He did the same thing with O’Brien on multiple occasions when the journalist covered him in his New York Times articles and later when he wrote a biography about Trump.
Of course there aren't any Trump-Comey tapes. One of his oldest bluffs, @TimOBrien says https://t.co/yzqeJnuM2p pic.twitter.com/GwP5mjJ5kv
— Bloomberg Opinion (@opinion) June 22, 2017
So, what should we make of this habit? Lying as a businessman in the media is one thing; lying as the President of the United States who is currently being investigated for obstruction of justice is another thing entirely. For some reason, I have a feeling this is going to come back to haunt him.