VOA常速英语:美国国会审查小组等待特朗普拿出指控奥巴马窃听的证据

Republican Senator John McCain as well as the Chairman and top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee say Americans deserve to know what prompted President Donald Trump’s stunning accusation against his predecessor.

“The President has said that this is a scandal that worse Watergate, that his predecessor engaged in an illegal wiretap of his campaign.That is one potential scandal, the alternative is a different kind of scandal.And that is a scandal of a sitting US President alleging that his predecessor engaged in the most unscrupulous and unlawful conduct.That is also a scandal if those allegations proved to be false.”

Whether or not Trump’s New York highrise was wiretapped as the President asserted more than a week ago,lawmakers want to know if members of the President’s inner circle are being probed.

“The bigger question that , that needs to be answered is whether or not Mr. Trump or any of his associates were in fact targeted by any of the Intelligence agencies or law enforcement authorities.And that’s at the heart of many of, of the questions that many of you have asked on numerous occasions.So we will, at this point, we don’t have any evidence of, of that.”

So far the White House has declined to shed any light on precisely what prompted the President’s explosive accusation.

“You are asking what if there’s evidence, and does, you mean, I’m not getting annoyed or serious on hypotheticals,prejudging the outcome of a report or investigation that hasn’t occurred yet.I think once that’s done, we’ll respond appropriately.”

“He needs to be careful with what he tweets, and what he says, and do less tweeting, and do more leading.”

Some lawmakers are warning of grave consequences if Trump’s pronouncements are seen as divorced from reality.

“If six months from now the President should say that Iran is cheating on the nuclear agreement,if he’s making that up, it’s a real problem.If he’s not making up, and it’s true, it’s a even bigger problem. Because the question is would people believe him, would American people believe him,would people around the world believe him, and that has real world consequences.”

Current and former Intelligence and law enforcement officials will testify in a series of congressional hearings beginning march 20.

Michael Bowman, VOA news, Washington.