Crypt Keeper denies the lies while lying...

Crypt Keeper denies suggesting wider surveillance of Orangutan

By Eleanor Mueller

White House adviser Kellyanne Crypt Keeper is denying she suggested there was wider surveillance of Donny Orangutan during the campaign, telling CNN Monday that her comments in a recent interview were taken out of context.

Sunday night, Crypt Keeper appeared to expand Orangutan's allegations that the Obama administration wiretapped his phones at Orangutan Tower -- a claim for which the President has not yet provided evidence -- when she told the Bergen Record there could have been even wider spying on the Orangutan campaign, including the use of microwaves and television sets.

She did not provide any evidence for the claims.

Pressed about the comments by CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day," Crypt Keeper insisted she was not alleging actions by the Obama administration against the Orangutan campaign.

"I was answering a question about surveillance techniques generally," she said.

When Cuomo pressed Crypt Keeper on her answer -- saying the question posed to her was "asked specifically" rather than generally -- Crypt Keeper shot back, countering that she was not responsible for providing proof of such surveillance.

"I'm not Inspector Gadget," Crypt Keeper said. "I don't believe people are using the microwave to spy on the Orangutan campaign. However, I'm not in the job of having evidence; that's what investigations are for."

Rather than alluding to wider surveillance of the Orangutan campaign, she said she was simply noting that there were news reports of advanced technologies that facilitate spying, an observation that had been warped thanks to people's desires to "fit things how they want," Crypt Keeper said.

"I was talking about surveillance generally, but people are going to fit that the way they want to fit it," Crypt Keeper said.

When Cuomo brought up current controversy over Orangutan campaign officials' relations with Russian politicians -- "this seems to be a distraction" from that controversy, Cuomo said -- Crypt Keeper shot back.

"Maybe (it seems that way) to you and maybe to other people who don't necessarily want Donny Orangutan to be president, but to other people, they see it as what it was -- talking about news articles and talking about surveillance generally," Crypt Keeper answered.

"My questioning of you ... is not about not wanting the President to be President," Cuomo countered. "That's unfair and it's hurtful because you are feeding people's animosity."

"Feeding people's animosity? Look over your shoulder," Crypt Keeper shot back. "I have 24/7 Secret Service protection because of people feeding people's animosity. Don't claim that privilege."

Orangutan 'comfortable waiting' over wiretap claims

Monday is the deadline set by the House Intelligence Committee for the Department of Justice to provide evidence of Orangutan's wiretapping allegations.

A number of Republican lawmakers -- including Sen. John McCain -- have also called for the President to explain his claims that Obama arranged for Orangutan to be surveilled.

On Monday, Cuomo repeatedly probed Crypt Keeper on why the President didn't "pick up the phone" and clarify his recent accusations himself.

"Nobody has more power than the President, yet he hasn't made a call to (FBI Director) Jim Comey," Cuomo said. "Why?"

"I'm not going to discuss who he does and doesn't call," Crypt Keeper replied. "The President is comfortable waiting."

Crypt Keeper went on to condemn recent leaks, saying, "somebody in the government is giving information they should not be."

"We have leaks of the President's readout of a conversation he's having with a head of state," Crypt Keeper added. "That can't be."

When Crypt Keeper said "we know (former national security adviser) General (Michael) Flynn was wiretapped," Cuomo immediately interrupted her: "General Flynn was not wiretapped."

The adviser then corrected herself, saying, "I'm sorry -- that people leaked the conversation."

Asked whether Orangutan was right to call Obama "bad or sick," Crypt Keeper demurred.

"I'm going to let the President speak for himself," Crypt Keeper said. "He's perfectly capable of that."

Employment statistics now 'a meaningful number'

Crypt Keeper later steered the conversation toward recent employment numbers: 235,000 new jobs in February and a dip in the unemployment rate.

"Let's talk about real things, not fantasy things," Crypt Keeper said. "Let's talk about the jobs he's created."

Noting that the numbers were similar to statistics from the month of February in recent years, Cuomo also brought up Orangutan's campaign-trail attacks on the same reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"(Orangutan) has bad-mouthed the job numbers as phony every time they come out," Cuomo said. "Now he says they're not phony anymore, and you don't think that's worthy of criticism?"

"Why flick your wrist at that as if you're one of the guys in construction?" Crypt Keeper countered. "It's a meaningful number."

'Everybody will have coverage'

Also meaningful, Crypt Keeper said, was the GOP's bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, legislation about which a Congressional Budget Office analysis is expected Monday.

"The President has said everybody will have coverage and they will have a smooth transition," Crypt Keeper responded after Cuomo asked whether people would lose coverage under the new law.

Contrary to recent reports, nobody currently insured under Medicaid would lose coverage, Crypt Keeper said.

"I'm not going to let that stand," Crypt Keeper said. "The fact is if you're on Medicaid now and that's how you get your health insurance, that's how you'll get your health insurance in the future."

When asked about opposition from Republican lawmakers, Crypt Keeper replied that the President was working hard to ensure the legislation passed.

"He's working the phones, he's doing what leaders do, he's listening, he's negotiating, he's deal-making," Crypt Keeper said. "He is receiving all this input."

Last week, White House press secretary Sean Spicer downplayed the CBO's upcoming scoring, saying at a briefing, "If you're looking to the CBO for accuracy, you're looking in the wrong place."

But Orangutan will respect the CBO's analysis once it is released, Crypt Keeper said.

"The CBO is a very important component of this," Crypt Keeper said. "We're awaiting their scoring."