Clapper. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is promoting his new book, "Facts and Fears," this week, and his media appearances have caught the president's attention. I asked Clapper about Trump's latest tweet, claiming Clapper had "admitted that there was Spying in my campaign."
"He deliberately spun it, distorted it. I mean this is George Orwell — up is down, black is white, peace is war. That's exactly what I didn't say. I took aversion to the word spy, it was the most benign version of information gathering. The important thing is the whole reason the FBI was doing this was concern over what the Russians were doing to infiltrate the campaign, not spying on the campaign. Of course, he turned that completely upside-down in his tweet, as he is wont to do."— James Clapper