CHRIS CUOMO (CO-HOST): Phil Mudd, you worked at the FBI. One of the headlines that the administration is pushing here is that [Deputy Attorney General] Rod Rosenstein -- who’s been on the job two weeks and they are saying he was tasked with doing this, by the way -- but that this is about a lack of confidence within the ranks. That's what they want the headline to be. The hidden headline seems to be in that second paragraph of the letter that the president put out. Do you believe, Phil Mudd, that there was a lack of confidence within the agency and do you believe that the director of the FBI would have one, let alone three conversations with a sitting president and that a sitting president would ask whether or not they were under investigation and be told? 

PHILIP MUDD: No way. Look, this is a painful day for America. This story is simple, it's not about confidence in the FBI, it's about politics over the rule of law. There are two investigations here. One obviously the e-mail investigation into the rival of the president of the United States. The other the Russia investigation. In both of those cases, let's presume that the Department of Justice brought charges against somebody in the Clinton team or the former Secretary of State [Hillary Clinton] herself. Let's presume that the FBI director was less prominent in his comments, in his investigation of the Russia story. I don't believe the president of the United States would have sent this letter. The reason the letter was sent is the president of the United States doesn't like the direction of investigations by the FBI. That is third-world dictatorship. That's not the United States. This might be politics in the Beltway, Chris. As a practitioner this is incredibly painful to see politics interfering with a law enforcement investigation. You can't have that happen.

Previously:

CNN's Jeffrey Toobin: Trump's Firing Of FBI Director Comey Is “A Grotesque Abuse Of Power”

Former FBI Special Agent Clint Watts On Comey Firing: “When Trump Doesn't Get His Way, He Either Smears You Or Fires You”

On CNN, Presidential Historian Douglas Brinkley Says “Donald Trump Just Behaved Like A Tyrant”

Trump Fired The FBI Director. No Journalist Should Believe Anything The White House Says About It.