Sen. Jeff Merkley Jeffrey (Jeff) Alan MerkleyThe Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by The Air Line Pilots Association - Trump, Biden renew push for Latino support Sunday shows - Trump team defends coronavirus response Oregon senator says Trump's blame on 'forest management' for wildfires is 'just a big and devastating lie' MORE (D-Ore.) says President Trump should apologize for accusing former President Obama of wiretapping him if he can't provide evidence.

"It deserves our attention because the president has raised a very serious accusation of criminal conduct by a former president," Merkley said Thursday on CNN's "New Day."

But, he added, if the administration can't give Congress any evidence of the claims, he expects the issue will "quickly be set aside."

"And say, OK, we looked at it, there is no information here and so conclusion is reached that it was a fiction developed by the president and asserted. Perhaps, as widely reported, he took it from Breitbart News," Merkley said.

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"This is where our president seems to go for his information and that he got this one absolutely wrong and really, quite frankly, should apologize."

Trump claimed in a series of tweets early Saturday morning that Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower during the presidential campaign.

Citing no evidence, Trump questioned whether it was legal for a sitting president to be tapping "a race for president prior to an election."