Sean Spicer just explained why ‘wire tapping’ is different from wiretapping

“If you look at the president's tweet, he said very clearly, quote, 'wire tapping' — in quotes,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said during March 13's news briefing, making air quotes with his fingers to emphasize his point. “There's been substantial discussion in several reports…There's been reports in the New York Times and the BBC and other outlets about other aspects of surveillance that have occurred. The president was very clear in his tweet that it was, you know, 'wire tapping' — that spans a whole host of surveillance types of options.” Ah, the old air-quotes defense.

According to Spicer's new argument, President Trump didn't necessarily mean wiretapping when he said “wire tapping” — and reporters should know this because he put the phrase in quotation marks. By “wire tapping,” Trump could have been referring to any one among “a whole host of surveillance types.” Obviously.