Mark Levin rips into media hypocrisy on Trump's wiretapping allegations

Talk radio host Mark Levin assailed the media Monday night during Sean Hannity's program on Fox News for what he perceived as their hypocrisy on their own reporting about alleged wiretapping of Trump Tower during the presidential election.

Hannity suggested to Levin that the story was not merely a right-wing conspiracy theory since it was sourced from mainstream media sources. "The media is very confounded right now," Levin answered, "they're very confused. They don't know whether to trash themselves, trash their colleagues, or what. You asked the question, you said 'what did Obama know?' We know he knows this much - everything you just read, he knew, because it's in the newspapers. That's pretty big."

Number two, we know that if a FISA warrant was secured, it's very likely, in his daily intelligence briefing or a call from the attorney general, or the director of the FBI, the president would be given a heads up. There's nothing illegal about it. But he'd be given a heads up.

Here's what else we know. There's all kinds of, based on these reports, investigative activities going on. Y'know McClatchy reported the agencies involved, the FBI, CIA, the National Security Agency, Justice Department, Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. I assume Obama knew something. I mean unless he's Helen Keller!

"Now let me another point about this," Hannity continued. "That's a hell of a lot of agency resources, those are a hell of a lot of investigators, the news reports, you mentioned the New York Times, I just want to make sure CNN and MSNBC are aware of this," Levin continued. "Wiretap data used in inquiry of Trump aides. I never said independent of news reports, about the wiretapping. Wiretap data used in inquiry of Trump aides. Didn't Mr. Clapper say there were no FISA orders issued, can you play that tape for me so I can comment on that?"

It's very very important. It's very important, because if Clapper says there was no FISA order, and he was very broad, and he was very definite. He said 'no, I don't remember this,' and you'll play it later. Then what the hell are we talking about? That means they didn't have enough information for probable cause for a warrant in front of the FISA court.

So what's the FBI, the CIA, the National Security Agency, the Justice Department, the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network investigating? What are these wiretaps that the New York Times was talking about? You know I know they want to focus on Donald Trump and his tweet. I want to focus on America and the Constitution.

"The reason I got fed up with this last week is I'm a constitutional conservative," Hannity explained. "I look at this, if I'm reading these news reports, we have a runaway executive branch. I don't know who knows what, and as of today, the media don't appear to know who knows what. Which is exactly why I've been calling for congressional investigations."

"The question is," Hannity continued, "why aren't CNN, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and all the rest of them, why aren't they concerned about this? Rather than mock the president and his tweet, pay attention to what your reporters and other reporters are saying!"

"So what you're saying," Hannity added, "is very deep and profound here, and I want to put some emphasis on this.

And that is that the news media reported the leaks. The news media reported the surveillance. The news media reported it repeatedly. This is the mainstream media. As far as I know they've never retracted the story. And everybody knew about it, it was not something that was hidden. Now in fact, Donald Trump somehow mentions that in fact it happened, and somehow this is a 'oh my gosh, this is outrageous.' What do we, how do we definitively find out that in June and again in October there were attempt to surveil the then-candidate of the opposition party by the current administration at the time, the Obama administration?

"Well two things need to happen," Levin responded.

"Number one, the FISA applications, which Clapper denies, by the way," Levin explained. "He denies and the follow up was pathetic over there at NBC, but we'll get that. The FISA applications should be released. That's number one."

The warrant that was supposedly secured, in October, should be released. The other thing that needs to be done is these daily presidential briefings that the president received that the intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies coordinate on and prepare. The intelligence committee chairman, needs to read them. And now we'll get to the bottom of this.

Now I find it very interesting people are saying, "let Trump release the damn FISA stuff." Can you imagine if he does that, he'll be accused of interfering with the investigation, trying to intimidate the Justice Department. No. Let Congress finally step up and do its job. They have Oversight Committees, we pay these people to do their jobs.

"Now get into those damn FISA accusations," Levin concluded, "look at the so-called, hold on now, look at the warrant that was released, look at these daily briefings and let's see what's in them!"

President Trump demanded an investigation from Congress on accusations of Obama wiretapping him during the presidential campaign. Some believe Trump made the claims after reading a Breitbart News story detailing Mark Levin's outlining of the argument against Obama.