Trump defender blows off prospect of Russian interference in Mueller report by blaming Obama
Jen Psaki, Scott Jennings -- screenshot

During a CNN panel discussion on the contents of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the possibility the Russians may have worked with Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, a Republican strategist tried to lay the blame on former President Barack Obama because it happened on his watch.


Speaking with "State of the Union" guest host Dana Bash and conservative Scott Jennings, former Obama communications director Jen Psaki said she was intrigued by what the Mueller investigation uncovered in the first two years of the Trump presidency.

"You're not taking a victory lap, but a lot of other Trump supporters are and there's a danger there," Psaki said in reference to no more indictments being handed down by Mueller before he submitted his report. "I'll also say on your last point, what President Obama did -- and I was working in the administration at the time -- he asked the intelligence community to put forward every single thing they knew so that it could be presented to the next administration even though it was not an administration we supported."

Jennings then dismissed the fact that the Obama administration investigated Russian influence.

"The election happened while Barack Obama was the president, " Jennings countered. "I'm constantly going back to this in my browser on my computer. the story in the Washington Post where the unnamed Obama administration official said, 'I feel like we sort of choked. we have so invested all this time and resources into collusion narrative and so little into the how did we fail at this at the end of the last term'."

Former Hillary Clinton campaign staffer Karen Finney fired back, saying Trump has still done nothing despite overwhelming evidence that the Russians are still meddling.

"To that point, and to Jen's point, the national intelligence apparatus came forward and said 'guess what? This problem is still ongoing," she lectured. "We have not seen any action by the Trump administration. So if your concern is what happened and why didn't we do anything then, I hope you're equally concerned that we're not doing anything right now and heading into a very important election."

You can watch below: