U.S. President Donald Trump was speaking “Americanese” when he tweeted that Barack Obama had wiretapped his phones, CNN political commentator Jeffrey Lord said Monday.
During a heated discussion on Anderson Cooper 360, Trump-backer Lord refused to call the president a liar when Trump tweeted Obama had wiretapped him.
Lord explained to the political panel he was on an Alabama radio talk show earlier Monday discussing Trump’s wiretap tweet when the host of the show said people speak “Americanese out here and we know what he meant.”
Lord said the radio host explained what Trump meant was “the FBI was or somebody was surveilling him, that’s what he thinks.”
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“He says ‘We get what he’s saying and all of you fancy people up here (in Washington) are trying to take this in another direction,’” Lord said.
The political pundit made the comments just hours after FBI Director James Comey testified at a congressional hearing examining Russian meddling in the presidential election and possible connections between Moscow and Trump’s campaign.
Comey refuted Trump’s baseless wiretap claims.
“With respect to the president’s tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI,” Comey said. The same was true, he added, of the Justice Department.
Anderson Cooper pressed Lord on his argument that people understood what Trump was meaning to say in his tweets.
“So Jeff, what you’re arguing then is the FBI and the Justice Department are mistaken for taking the president literally because they don’t speak, umm,” Cooper said with a pause.
“Americanese,” Lord said.
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Lord went on to add that his is “such a classic Washington story,” before former Obama communications director Jen Psaki chimed in.
“I think that’s totally wrong. Look, I don’t think every person is following every aspect of the hearings,” Psaki said. “But you’re undervaluing the intelligence of the American people if you don’t think that they care about somebody’s credibility, their honesty.”
Trump’s credibility was then debated by the panel when Lord was pushed on whether or not Trump is a liar.
“Do you believe this president of the United States is a congenital liar?” Cooper asked.
“No,” Lord replied.
“Do you believe he’s lied repeatedly?” Cooper asked.
“No,” Lord said.
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