Sen. Bernie Sanders thinks President Donald Trump’s repeated demonstrably false statements have to stop.

In a tweetstorm Monday, Sanders took on Trump’s latest seemingly unsubstantiated allegations that President Barack Obama ordered a wiretap on his phones at Trump Tower. From “birtherism” to crowd sizes, the Vermont senator said Trump’s “lies” have diminished the United States’ standing in the world.

President Trump cannot continue to lie, lie, lie. It diminishes the office of the president and our standing in the world. https://t.co/V8cRvX4ttv — Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 6, 2017

Trump said 3-5 million people voted illegally and that his victory "was the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan.” Both lies. — Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 6, 2017

Trump said “it looked like a million and a half people" at his inauguration. Not even close. — Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 6, 2017

And Trump was lying long before he was president when he tried to delegitimize our first black president with the "birther" conspiracy. — Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 6, 2017

The United States will not be respected or taken seriously around the world if @realDonaldTrump continues to shamelessly lie. — Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 6, 2017

According to the Washington Post‘s Amber Phillips, Sanders’s tweetstorm is a sign of the “sorry state” of current political climate — both for fans and detractors of the former Democratic presidential candidate.

“Political norms — like, don’t accuse the president of the United States of lying without evidence, or don’t accuse the former president of the United States of wiretapping your phones without evidence — have been eviscerated,” Phillips wrote.


That said, the absence of evidence in this case appears to be tipping against Trump.

In an interview Sunday, former director of national intelligence James Clapper said their was no wiretap activity mounted against Trump or his campaign. FBI director James Comey has also reportedly asked the Justice Department to publicly reject Trump’s accusations.

In a series of tweets Saturday, the president likened his own wiretap claims to both “McCarthyism” and “Watergate.”

Maybe Phillips has a point.