Jeff Malet/Newscom via ZUMA Press
President Trump says James Comey “better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations.” Well, are there any “tapes”? Does President Trump record conversations in the White House? Let’s ask the press secretary about all this:
Spicer said he will not answer any questions about whether the President has a taping/listening/monitoring system in the White House.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 12, 2017
Sean Spicer won’t say whether Trump recorded his conversations with Comey. “The president has nothing further to add on that.”
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 12, 2017
Q: Did president record his conversation w/ Director Comey?
Spicer: The pres. has nothing further to add to that.This is not acceptable.
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) May 12, 2017
Huh. You’d think the answer would be a simple no, but I guess not. Perhaps we’ll find out for sure when Congress subpoenas the recordings and Trump has to tell a federal judge whether they exist.
But if they do exist, I have some advice: just destroy them now. I never understood why Nixon kept those tapes around for so long. He should have just burned them and then claimed that they were destroyed in accord with standard record retention policy. Or something.
