{"id":29531,"date":"2017-05-15T05:03:26","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T05:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=29531"},"modified":"2017-05-15T05:03:26","modified_gmt":"2017-05-15T05:03:26","slug":"senators-voice-concerns-trumps-threat-taped-conversations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/senators-voice-concerns-trumps-threat-taped-conversations.html","title":{"rendered":"Senators Voice Concerns About Trump’s Threat of Taped Conversations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSenators Voice Concerns About Trump's Threat of Taped Conversations<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span>
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\n\tSenators Voice Concerns About Trump's Threat of Taped Conversations:- President Trump’s abrupt dismissal last week of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and his subsequent allusion to taped conversations with Mr. Comey continued to roil Washington on Sunday.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tIn televised appearances, lawmakers in both parties said that the recordings could or should come to light if they exist, while a former director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., suggested that Mr. Trump was contributing to an erosion of democratic institutions.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said the prospect that a conversation with Mr. Comey was recorded must be taken seriously.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“You can’t be cute about tapes,” he said. “If there are any tapes of this conversation, they need to be turned over. I doubt if there are. But we need to clear the air.”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Fox News, Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, said if there are recordings, it was “probably inevitable” that they would be turned over to Congress, which is investigating possible connections between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russia.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth senators, along with others, were responding to the president’s warning to Mr. Comey, in a Twitter post on Friday, that he had “better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe minority leader, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, said that President Trump should turn over such tapes “immediately,” if they exist, while Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the committee investigating the Russia ties, said that such recordings must be preserved.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMr. Schumer also used the controversy to repeat his call for a special prosecutor to lead the Russia investigation, and left open the possibility that Democrats might withdraw support for a new F.B.I. director if the Justice Department did not appoint an independent prosecutor.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“A special prosecutor can look into these tapes, can look into if they exist, can examine everything in an independent way,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, Mr. Clapper, said on Sunday that he found the firing “very disturbing” and that the country’s systems of checks and balances was “under assault” by the White House.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMr. Clapper, interviewed by Jake Tapper on “State of the Union,” said that America’s democratic institutions were being attacked externally, a reference to Russia’s interference in the election last year, and internally.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“Internally from the president?” Mr. Tapper asked.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“Exactly,” Mr. Clapper said.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMr. Clapper also rejected Mr. Trump’s repeated citing of Mr. Clapper’s Senate testimony in dismissing the F.B.I. investigation into the possible Russia ties.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tRepeating statements he made last week, Mr. Clapper said that he had not known about the investigation until Mr. Comey disclosed it publicly and his previous testimony “should not be considered exculpatory.”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMr. Clapper said sensitive investigations were kept as compartmentalized as possible. In a separate appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” he said he had left counterintelligence investigations to the F.B.I.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe concerns about the firing have extended beyond Washington. An NBC News\/Wall Street Journal poll released on Sunday showed that 29 percent of Americans approved of the decision, and 38 percent disapproved.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tNikki R. Haley, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, also appearing on “This Week,” defended Mr. Trump’s firing of Mr. Comey.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“The president is the C.E.O. of his country,” Ms. Haley said. “He can hire and fire whoever he wants, that’s his right. Whether you agree with it or not, it’s the truth.”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSecretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, appearing on “Meet the Press,” said the firing did not make him concerned about his own independence. He said he had a “great relationship with the president.”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“I will never compromise my own values,” Mr. Tillerson added. “And so that’s my only line. And my values are those of the country.”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tHe also responded to an Op-Ed article in The New York Times last week by Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, in which Mr. McCain argued that Mr. Tillerson’s remarks about decoupling foreign policy from human rights had “sent a message to oppressed people everywhere, ‘Don’t look to the United States for hope.’”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“I make a distinction between values and policy,” Mr. Tillerson said on “Meet the Press.” “A policy has to be tailored to the individual situation.”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMr. Graham advised Mr. Trump to rein in his public reaction to the F.B.I.’s Russia investigation.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“I would advise the president not to tweet or comment about the investigation as we go forward,” he said, adding, “The president needs to back off here and let the investigation go forward.”<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSource:- https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/05\/14\/us\/politics\/fbi-clapper-trump-comey.html?_r=0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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