by Dolapo Adelana

The White House on Monday softened its position on claims by US President, Donald Trump that President Barack Obama wiretapped his phones in Trump Tower during the 2016 election.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump wasn’t referring to wiretapping when he tweeted about wiretapping.

“I think there’s no question that the Obama administration, that there were actions about surveillance and other activities that occurred in the 2016 election,” Spicer said. “The President used the word wiretaps in quotes to mean, broadly, surveillance and other activities.”

Speaking further, Spicer said Trump was referring to the Obama administration as a whole, and not accusing Obama as a person of being involved, when he tweeted that “Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower” and accused Obama of being a “bad” or “sick guy.”

Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

Spicer said Trump told him he was referring to means of surveillance beyond wiretapping in his tweets accusing Obama of doing just that.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway also lent her voice to the wiretapping claims in an interview on Sunday with the Bergen County Record.

She suggested that other covert surveillance methods used by the CIA, as revealed by Wikileaks last week, could have been used in Trump Tower by the Obama administration

“Do you know whether Trump Tower was wiretapped?” Bergen County Record columnist Mike Kelly asked Conway on Sunday.

“What I can say is there are many ways to surveil each other,” Conway said, before suggesting that surveillance could take place through phones, TVs or “microwaves that turn into cameras.”