The House has voted to re-authorize the controversial FISA program, a key piece of the NSA’s surveillance program.
The vote followed a pair of contradictory tweets this morning from Pres. Trump, the first of which came after Trump seemed to be watching Fox & Friends, which was discussing the issue. During the segment, Fox News’s senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano looked into the camera and called on the president to not push for re-authorization.
“Mr. President this is not the way to go,” he said. WATCH:
During the segment, after claiming that Trump’s “woes began” with “surveillance of him,” Andrew Napolitano literally turns to the camera and says, “Mr. President, this is not the way to go.” pic.twitter.com/W8NrtDDP3I
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) January 11, 2018
Trump initially expressed support for Napolitano’s commentary in this tweet:
“House votes on controversial FISA ACT today.” This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018
But 90 minutes later, the president walked back the tweet, likely because someone from the administration or congressional leadership told him that the White House was supporting re-authorization.
With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and today’s vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018
As for Napolitano, his comments about “unlawful foreign surveillance and unconstitutional domestic surveillance” made on the program this morning echo the ones that were cited by Sean Spicer during a press briefing in March, which set off an international incident, and got Napolitano suspended from Fox News.
TVNewser reached out to Fox News to find out what, if any, action will be taken this time.