Even before and during the hearing with James Comey before the House Intelligence Committee, the White House went into panic mode. Tweets were sent out, and press secretary Sean Spicer was assigned the thankless task of telling transparent lies that seemed to be invented on the spot.
People were disavowed and discredited without giving much consideration to the credibility of the statements. Michael Flynn, a key operative in the entire campaign, considered for Vice President and finally given the job of National Security Adviser, was referred to as "a volunteer for the campaign", as if he had never been important. About Paul Manafort, manager of the Trump campaign for five months in 2016, it was claimed he "played a very limited role for a very limited time". In a bizarre turn of events, two tweets sent out from the official presidential account @POTUS during the hearing were actually read out to Comey and Rogers, and those tweets were fact checked and discredited in real time. The White House was in shambles trying to distance themselves from a large number of people and deflecting to other issues, failing miserably at it.
However, when Comey and Rogers were asked about the wire tap allegations, and both said that there was no truth to them whatsoever, the President dug in and refused to back down on his claim. According to Donald Trump, President Obama definitely ordered wire tapping of him in Trump Tower in 2016. No evidence of this has turned up, but Sean Spicer said "the investigation is not finished yet" and said that the President stands firmly by his claim.
These desperate, amateurish and badly botched attempts at damage control only makes the people in the White House seem guilty. Sure, they had this coming, but it's still painful to watch.
