When they go low, we go....lower? Apparently, that was the way things went in one CNN panel Friday morning as former CIA agent Philip Mudd suggested that President Trump deserves “a pacifier and a rattle” and be placed “in the crib” while CNN historian Tim Neftali expressed dismay at the United States having become a “20th century banana republic.”
Of course, these new liberal media meltdowns were a result of the President’s tweets threatening to cancel White House press briefings, denouncing the allegations of Russian collusion, and suggesting that conversations with now-fired FBI Director Jim Comey were recorded.
At This Hour host Kate Bolduan asked Mudd to comment on the Trump tweets and Mudd stated that “this is going to sound facetious” but “I’m breathing a sigh of relief” because “[y]ou can't take this seriously.”
Mudd explained that such a threat could be taken seriously by any of the other recent presidents going back to George H.W. Bush, but not with Trump because “you've got to give the President of the United States a pacifier and a rattle and put him in the crib.”
“You're threatening the FBI, who's in the midst of an investigation of presidential aides? The FBI's been around since 1908. The President of the United States has been around for three and a half months. If you think you're going to intimidate the FB — the former FBI Director and the dozens of people in the workforce who are conducting this investigation with the Department of Justice, you've got another thing coming,” he added.
Two days after lamenting that the United States has devolved into being ruled by a “third world dictatorship,” Mudd doubled down and suggested the inauguration was “stupid,” including Trump’s claims about crowd sizes and persistent belief in birtherism.
Bolduan didn’t take too kindly to the inauguration label:
BOLDUAN: I have immense respect for you. We talk all the time. You can't call the inauguration stupid, but — I hear you.
MUDD: No, the crowd — the claims of how many people showed up. That was ridiculous.
BOLDUAN: We've got enough to deal with in the present. Let us not go to the past, please, Phil? I can't go to those tweets right now.
Neftali finally had his chance and he piled on, observing that “we look a little bit like a 20th century banana republic at the moment to the world.”
He continued:
This is outrageous. Second thing, this is not 1973. In 1973, the President could have assumed that he owned the tapes. If for some strange, bizarre reason — and we've seen so much that’s bizarre lately — Donald Trump put, installed or had installed a taping system, those are federal records, thanks to Richard Nixon's court challenges.
Before concluding his first set of comments, Neftali gleefully predicted that “I don't believe there are tapes, but if there are, this is not going to be a very long administration.”
Here’s the relevant portion of the transcript from CNN’s At This Hour with Kate Bolduan on May 12:
CNN’s At This Hour with Kate Bolduan
May 12, 2017
11:04 a.m. EasternKATE BOLDUAN: Phil, what's your reaction to this? I'm not asking you to get into the President's head here. What do you think is going on?
PHILIP MUDD: Please don't. Believe me, I know this is going to sound facetious. I'm breathing a sigh of relief. You can't take this seriously. You could have taken this seriously from President Bush or President Obama, from President Bush's father, from President Clinton. You can't take this seriously. You feel like you've got to give the President of the United States a pacifier and a rattle and put him in the crib. You're threatening the FBI, who's in the midst of an investigation of presidential aides? The FBI's been around since 1908. The President of the United States has been around for three and a half months. If you think you're going to intimidate the FB — the former FBI Director and the dozens of people in the workforce who are conducting this investigation with the Department of Justice, you've got another thing coming. Anybody outside the Beltway, any everyday American who looks at this and takes in a breath and says I'm worried, I'd say, don't worry about it. This is a joke and nobody in the investigation would take this seriously.
(....)
MUDD: Look, if somebody suggests there's executive privilege here, my first response would be the President of the United States has already tried to malign the former FBI director. I think it's perfectly within their rights, not of an FBI director, but now Jim Comey's a private citizen, to defend himself. Let me be clear. If you put up a Twitter poll among the 320 million-plus citizens, who do you think wins the trust pool? Do you think it's the President of the United States, who should win, or do you think it is the FBI director, who will win? Nobody believes the President of the United States from the day he came in and misrepresented how many people showed up at the stupid inauguration to the claims he made at the beginning about where the President of the United States, his predecessor, was born. Nobody believes this guy anymore, which is why I look at the threat, the tweet, and can't take it seriously. The man doesn't have any credibility.
BOLDUAN: I have immense respect for you. We talk all the time. You can't call the inauguration stupid, but — I hear you.
MUDD: No, the crowd — the claims of how many people showed up. That was ridiculous.
BOLDUAN: We've got enough to deal with in the present. Let us not go to the past, please, Phil? I can't go to those tweets right now. Tim Neftali, you have spent a long time studying a thing or two about taped conversations in the White House. Is this even possible?
TIM NEFTALI: I want to say two things. First of all, we look a little bit like a 20th century banana republic at the moment to the world. This is outrageous. Second thing, this is not 1973. In 1973, the President could have assumed that he owned the tapes. If for some strange, bizarre reason — and we've seen so much that’s bizarre lately — Donald Trump put, installed or had installed a taping system, those are federal records, thanks to Richard Nixon's court challenges. Not every moment on those tapes would be federal records, but most of them, they are federal records, so he couldn't even destroy them. In 1973, Richard Nixon, actually before the subpoenas, could have destroyed the tapes. I don't believe there are tapes, but if there are, this is not going to be a very long administration.
