WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly said that President Donald Trump must have "convincing evidence" for his allegation on Twitter that President Barack Obama ordered a wiretap of his phones during the campaign.
"I don't know anything about it," he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on the Situation Room. "If the President of the United States said that, he's got his reasons to say it."
Kelly continued: "He must have some convincing evidence that took place. ... I don't pretend to even guess as to what the motivation may have been for the previous administration to do something like that."
Trump created an uproar when he took to Twitter on Saturday to declare, without evidence, that Obama had the "wires tapped" in Trump Tower ahead of the election. The White House has declined to substantiate the President's claims, and a White House official told CNN that the theory reached Trump due to a Brietbart article circulating in the West Wing.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer, speaking at the White House on Monday, did not offer evidence to back up the claims, but doubled-down, saying, "There's no question that something happened."
Blitzer asked Kelly about CNN's report that FBI Director James Comey was "incredulous" over the weekend after seeing Trump's tweets accusing Obama of wiretapping. A source told CNN that Comey felt "institutionally he has to push back on this" because of the magnitude of the allegations that Comey knows not to be true.
Kelly responded by saying Comey is his "friend," and said he doesn't trust those reports.
"With due respect to sources, I have been wrong so many times in the last six, seven weeks," Kelly responded. "(Sources) that were dead wrong. I don't go much on single sources anymore."
Kelly said that he would expect Comey to turn Trump's wiretap allegation over to "an investigative arm, and we can get to the truth or to the bottom line."
"Jim Comey is an honorable guy," he said. "And so is the President of the United States. And the President must have his reasons."
The-CNN-Wire
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