CNN analyst and former FBI and CIA official Phil Mudd excoriated the unidentified whistleblower in the intelligence community who filed a complaint alleging President Trump made a “promise” with a foreign leader.
The topic of the whistleblower’s complaint was unknown until Wednesday, and many details remain unknown to the public, however the Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson called it “credible and urgent.” Atkinson testified in front of the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday morning.
Mudd discussed the revelations in the story and his distaste for it during an interview with Chris Cuomo on Wednesday night.
“Boy, I’m about ready to blow a gasket. That is extremely unusual and I listened to presidential phone calls when I was an official at the White House under George W. Bush in 2001. Can you explain to me, a, why it’s the U.S. Intelligence community’s responsibility to listen to the president of the United States speaking to a foreign leader,” Mudd began. “Last I checked, Chris, when I served, we were responsible for chasing the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, and terrorists. We’re not responsible for reporting to the Congress what the president says.”
“So you don’t like that somebody snitched on the president?” Cuomo asked.
Mudd answered, “Correct. The question if you have a whistleblower issue in the intelligence community might be, is somebody misusing funds. For example, is somebody seeing something about covert action overseas, that’s CIA operations overseas that’s inappropriate.”
“Hold on a second,” the host pushed back. “What if he did say something to a foreign leader that sounded like a promise that went over the line enough that somebody of good conscience said he’s not supposed to say things like this.”
“What the heck is over the line? The president can say what he wants to Putin, he can say what he wants to Kim Jong Un. He can say to Kim Jong Un, which I think is completely over the top, I’ll go meet you in the DMZ, the demilitarized zone,” Mudd added. “The president can say what he wants. It’s not the responsibility of the intel guys to go police the president and go snitch on him to the Congress. Ridiculous.”
Trump pushed back on the report on Twitter Thursday morning calling it “another fake news story.”
