Government’s Gonna Kill This Guy

CNN counterterrorism analyst Philip Mudd is retired from a long career in American intelligence.  He was in the upper echelons of the intelligence community and was a member of the White House National Security Council.  He was appointed by FBI Director Robert Mueller to be the first deputy director of the FBI's National Security Branch in 2005.  He was awarded the William Langer Award for excellence in analysis and several Exceptional Performance Awards.  He resigned from government service in 2010 and is presently the President of Mudd Management, a company specializing in security consulting.

There is nothing exceptional about Mudd’s career except for the fact that he was a high performer.  He obviously was a good fit for the intelligence community.  His specialty is analysis.  It is therefore strange that he could demonstrate such a lack of judgment when discussing the policies of the President of the United States.  On August 11 during the CNN program The Lead with Jake Tapper there was a discussion about Trump’s comments about the Russian expulsion of U.S. diplomats.  Mudd responded to the question “what was your response Phil Mudd?” with “As a former government official.  Government’s gonna kill this guy.”

Tapper had to interrupt to make sure Mudd was speaking metaphorically.  Mudd responded “obviously.”  It is unfortunate that members of the entertainment community can “joke” about the President’s severed head.  We should expect a great deal more from our intelligence professionals.  This is more than an example of poor judgment.  Rudd mentions the “deep state.”   Referring to this entity as the “deep state” gives it an air of nefarious mystery.  There is nothing mysterious about the “deep state.”  It is the enormous bureaucracy that has been built up over the years.  It has a mind of its own and is remarkably resistant to the interference of elected officials.  Philip Mudd is an excellent example of a member of that bureaucracy.

Trump is a threat to this “deep state.”  He will attempt to rein it in.  However, funding for government programs has not been seriously reduced.  Congress (Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell) is still funding wasteful programs and leftist organizations.  Republican leadership claims it cannot make progress because that is how government works.  Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid never used that excuse.

While Mudd spoke approvingly of the government “killing this guy,” Richard Higgins, former NSC Director for Strategic Planning, wrote a memo describing the process the “deep state” is using to remove the President.  Higgins paid for his memo with his job. In his seven-page memo he warns of a concerted information warfare campaign designed to remove the President.  His memo states, “The Trump administration is suffering under withering information campaigns designed to first undermine, then delegitimize and ultimately remove the president.”  “For this cabal, Trump must be destroyed.”  Were something happen to the President, Mudd’s irresponsible remarks will come back to haunt him.