Of course there will be some who run with these statements in the literal, but let’s be sure we’re not wetting ourselves unnecessarily, and we understand the statement was figurative, when put in context.
While appearing on CNN’S “The Lead” with Jake Tapper, former deputy director serving under then-FBI Director Robert Mueller, and current counterterrorism analyst for CNN, Phil Mudd, expressed disgust at President Trump’s willingness to praise Russian President Vladimir Putin, all while attacking and demeaning members of his own government.
“Let me give you one bottom line as a former government official. Government is going to kill this guy,” Mudd, a staunch critic of Trump, said on “The Lead.”
“He defends Vladimir Putin. There are State Department and CIA officers coming home, and at Langley and Foggy Bottom, CIA and State, they’re saying, ‘This is how you defend us?’ ” he continued.
No, he wasn’t suggesting violence against the president when he said government would kill Trump.
Mudd was speaking to a host of bad decisions and bad comments made by Trump that would drive a wedge between himself and the agencies under him.
Mudd went on:
“We saw the same thing in his transgender comments. What is the military saying to him on transgender? ‘Show us the policy.’ You know what that means inside government? ‘Ain’t going to happen,’ ” he said
And what about recent news regarding a pre-dawn raid on the home of Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, by the FBI?
“What did the Department of Justice say on Paul Manafort? ‘You can say what you want, a judge told us we had cause to search his home early in the morning because we don’t trust the guy who was your campaign manager.’ The government is going to kill this guy because he doesn’t support them,” he concluded.
And that’s the gist that so many who are desperate to defend Trump seem to miss (whether purposely or out of blind loyalty): Trump has spent so much time attacking his own government and the people who serve, that he is fast eroding any measure of respect or duty to defend the office from inside the government. How can they trust him?
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