Trump gave Capitol rioters an 'umbrella excuse' to come to DC and wreak havoc: counterterrorism analyst

Speaking on CNN this Tuesday, former FBI Senior Intelligence Adviser and CNN counterterrorism analyst Philip Mudd discussed the two men who were arrested and charged with assaulting U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick with an unknown chemical spray during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Julian Elie Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania and George Pierre Tanios, 39, of Morgantown, W.Va., were taken into custody Sunday. Authorities have not yet determined if the assault led to Sicknick's death. According to Mudd, prosecutors likely want to bring murder charges, but "the question is whether they can" since there's no comment yet from medical investigators linking the chemical spray to his death.

Mudd went on to say that the motivations behind the attack don't necessarily stem from any one ideology.

"This is not an ideology, this is an excuse," Mudd said. "Think of the motivations that led people to come to Washington -- if you don't like immigration, if you don't like vaccines, if you don't like Democrats, if you want a wall, if you don't like gay marriage -- all these things fit under one umbrella and that is an umbrella that's America."

"These are Americans saying we are angry, and a former president gave us an umbrella excuse to come to Washington and demonstrate," Mudd continued. "So this is about an excuse, as I said. It's not about a unified ideology. Anything you want, you can find in MAGA and those are the people who showed up in Washington. Don't think about it through a lens of political ideology, think about it through a lens of hate and anger."

Watch the video over at CNN.