Addressing a report that President Donald Trump was warned by the FBI early in 2016 that the Russians might try to influence the presidential election, a former CIA chief of staff suggested that the then-nominee's blasé response likely meant he would welcome the help.
Appearing on MSNBC's Deadline White House with host Nicolle Wallace, former CIA and Defense Department official Jeremy Bash said the fact that Trump never notified the FBI that his son was meeting Russians at Trump Tower is telling.
"I think it's clear once [former National Security Adviser] Mike Flynn lied to the FBI about his communications with the Russians that at least Flynn was, at the very least, unwitting," Bash explained. "And the question that [Special Counsel] Bob Mueller will follow up on is: whether he was unwitting and whether Donald Trump as the president-elect, and later the president, was also unwitting of these contacts and an effort by Russia to reach out."
Turning to Monday's NBC report on the FBI warning, Bash called the Trump's lack of response "fascinating."
"I think the fact that the campaign, the candidate was warned and that the candidate and the campaign did not then go back to the FBI after the Trump Tower meeting is a huge red flag that, not only were they unconcerned with this Russian overture, but they welcomed it and in some ways want to conceal it," Bash suggested.
Bash pressed his point home by adding, "To have warned the FBI would have been to expose their own conduct, the campaign's own conduct, and that is something that Bob Mueller will be very, very interested in. "
You can watch the video below via MSNBC:
