Appearing on CNN on Saturday morning, the former deputy director of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center took on a conservative CNN commentator's accusation that the fault for not stopping Russian hacking of the 2016 presidential election belongs to former President Barack Obama.
Appearing with host Victor Blackwell, Phil Mudd was asked about an opinion piece by conservative Scott Jennings where he suggested that the collusion charges leveled against Donald Trump were created to cover up Obama's dereliction of duty.
The former CIA agent shot that notion down.
"If you look at this, there's a fair question about what the Obama administration should have done. whether they should have, in the midst of dealing with issues like Syria and Isis, whether they should have said, 'wow, this seems like the Russians are trying to meddle in the electoral process," Mudd explained. "The counter-analysis is simple: let's go to the campaign between Clinton and Trump."
"Imagine the Democratic candidate standing there a month before the election telling the American people, 'believe it or not, there's credible information about Russia meddling. and our enemy is trying to favor the Republican candidate over Hillary Clinton," he continued. "What do you think people would have said if Donald Trump had lost? I think there's a fair question that Obama should have done more, but the question isn't focused on what would have happened if Obama had gotten out there and tried to say what we saw."
Mudd later attacked Republicans who were informed about Russian attempts to hack the election -- but dismissed them -- and continue to block efforts to stop more attacks.
You can see the video below: