President Donald Trump abruptly concluded an interview with John Dickerson after the CBS anchor repeatedly asked about his unfounded claims that President Barack Obama had ordered surveillance of Trump Tower.
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Trump abruptly ends interview after CBS anchor grills him on Obama wiretapping claims
Trump abruptly ended an interview after repeated questions about the president's unfounded claims that Barack Obama had ordered surveillance of Trump Tower.
President Donald Trump and CBS anchor John Dickerson.
In an interview that aired Monday, Dickerson pressed the president to explain his March tweets claiming Obama wiretapped him during the 2016 election.
"You're the president of the United States," Dickerson said. "You said he was 'sick and bad' because he had tapped you."
"You can take it any way you want," Trump replied.
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"I'm asking you," Dickerson said, "because you don't want it to be fake news. I want to hear it from President Trump."
The president insisted that he had his opinions and that Dickerson could draw his conclusions about what Trump meant.
"But I want to know your opinions," Dickerson said. "You're the president of the United States."
"OK, it's enough. Thank you. Thank you very much," Trump said, walking away from Dickerson.
The "Face the Nation" host told "CBS This Morning" on Monday that Trump wanted him to leave after the exchange.
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"I think it was pretty clear that I was to move myself out or I was to be moved along," Dickerson said.
Though Trump has stood by his assertion, the intelligence community has not supported it, and the White House has wavered on whether the president's tweets should be interpreted literally.
Trump said in March that he felt vindicated by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes' claim that the intelligence community may have incidentally collected information about some of Trump's associates during the transition — though Nunes' statement differed significantly from Trump's assertion.
A liberal group filed a lawsuit last month demanding the Department of Justice and the FBI release information that would support or disprove the president's claim.
Watch a video of the moment:
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Disclosure: The author of this post briefly worked for Dickerson as a researcher.
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