Putting a word in Quotation Marks

Recently the president used the words "wire tapped" and put them in quotation marks, as I have done here. Now, he and his people are attempting to explain that the words "wire tapped" didn't necessarily mean that at all and that a much broader definition should be attached. I happen to disagree and the fact that the words were allowed to sit out here for days without further explanation seems to indicate that wire tapped is exactly what he meant! He might have simply said surveillance techniques and he might have also included wire tapping as a possibility but he didn't. I take the words "wire tapped," as written, to mean wire tapped. Am I wrong?