President Barack Obama said in a 2012 interview that “it’d be fun to have a taping system” in the Oval Office.
Obama made his remark in an October 2012 interview with Vanity Fair reporter Michael Lewis, the author of “Moneyball.”
“No,” Obama said when asked if he had a secret taping system similar to the one installed by Lyndon Johnson, which eventually brought down Richard Nixon, disclosed details of the Watergate burglary cover-up in tapes subpoenaed by Congress.
“It’d be fun to have a taping system. It’d be wonderful to have a verbatim record of history,” Obama said.
“Actually, I’ve got to be careful here [about what I say],” Obama added.
“Obama doesn’t come across as political or calculating, but every now and then it seems to occur to him how something would sound, if repeated out of context and then handed as a weapon to people who wish him ill,” Lewis wrote in regard to the exchange.
Obama has been compared to Nixon in the press and on the Internet after it was revealed that the IRS improperly targeted conservative groups with costly audits and the National Security Agency collected phone records from unknowing private citizens.