President Donald Trump volleyed a series of accusations on Twitter Monday morning that included attacks on Hillary Clinton and repeated claims that he had been under surveillance by the previous administration — the latest instance of him responding to reports on Fox News.
The tweet storm included praise of an "amazing" report by Fox News on allegations of intelligence surveillance, questions of whether the brother of Hillary Clinton's former campaign chair had ties to Russian sanctions, and renewing a campaign feud over Clinton receiving questions or topics in advance of events for Democratic candidates during the primaries.
Trump began by expressing his support for a "Fox & Friends" segment around 6:15 am ET on Monday, saying “Such amazing reporting on unmasking and the crooked scheme against us by @foxandfriends” and repeating their claim from an unnamed source in a report that he was allegedly “spied on” before his nomination for Republican presidential candidate in the 2016 election. That claim has been disputed by Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
His tweet came roughly 10 minutes after the television show aired a segment highlighting a story from Fox reporters Malia Zimmerman and Adam Housley using similar wording.
Next, Trump turned to Hillary Clinton and her former campaign chairman John Podesta.
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"Was the brother of John Podesta paid big money to get the sanctions on Russia lifted? Did Hillary know?" he tweeted.
Earlier on Monday, "Fox & Friends" featured Newt Gingrich in a segment alleging possible ties of John Podesta and his brother to the Russians.
Trump then tweeted: "Did Hillary Clinton ever apologize for receiving the answers to the debate? Just asking!"
The post seems to reference hacked DNC emails that appeared to show then-interim Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile communicating with the Clinton camp about a question or topics during CNN-hosted events for the Democratic primary candidates.
Brazile, who was a former CNN contributor, has since said in an essay for TIME that prior to becoming interim DNC chair she shared "potential town hall topics" with the Clinton campaign, in emails she says were "a mistake I will forever regret."
The president then again cited Fox News' reporting in another tweet, appearing to quote one of their reporters during a segment earlier that hour on the alleged surveillance report.
".@FoxNews from multiple sources: "There was electronic surveillance of Trump, and people close to Trump. This is unprecedented," Trump tweeted at around 8:50 a.m.
Trump has repeated an unverified claim that his campaign headquarters was wiretapped by former President Barack Obama, a claim that officials on both sides of the aisle have said there is no evidence to support.
But two weeks ago, House Intelligence Committee Republican Chairman Devin Nunes announced, without informing his Democratic counterpart Rep. Adam Schiff, that he had seen reports that Trump and his team may have been incidentally monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies during the transition. This included reports that the names of some of the members of Trump’s transition team were “incidentally unmasked,” or revealed, as part of some kind of an undefined surveillance effort.
Related: McConnell Says He’s Seen ‘No’ Evidence of Trump Surveillance
Nunes backed down from his initial assertion that Trump and his aides were “monitored” just a few days later, saying he could not be sure whether conversations among Trump and his aides were captured as a result of those surveillance efforts.
Schiff, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, among others, have since called for Nunes to recuse himself from the panel's investigation into Russia's interference in the presidential election and any potential ties to Trump associates.
Trump's early morning tweets are often directly related to cable news segment and he has often included references to "Fox & Friends," his professed favorite morning show.
