Former FBI officer: Saying 'Defund the FBI' means 'let your kid be abused'

Former FBI senior intelligence adviser and CNN analyst Phil Mudd attacked critics of the Bureau by suggesting they are encouraging violence and open to crimes like their own child being abused going uninvestigated.

Mudd appeared on Sunday’s "CNN Newsroom" to discuss ongoing criticism of the FBI by Republican politicians after the Mar-a-Lago raid on August 8. The FBI has since reported an increased number of death threats as well as a gunman attempting to attack their Cincinnati office.

The CNN counterterrorism analyst condemned these threats while claiming that politicians criticizing the FBI bear some blame.

"Yeah. I think there’s a couple things you need to think about. The first would be threats to American citizens who happen to be FBI employees. If you look at what happened in Cincinnati, and you’ve seen reports today of armed individuals outside the office in Phoenix, this is a numbers game, Jim. If politicians start to encourage people to commit acts of violence against the FBI, even if you say, ‘Defund the FBI,’ there is a violent fringe that will say, ‘I want to take action.’ There might be 100th of 1% of the fringe who say, ‘That means I should commit an act of violence,’" Mudd said.

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He added, "If 0.001% of the population says, ‘I need to commit an act of violence,’ those people, the FBI employees are under threat."

Regarding calls to defund the FBI, Mudd further defended the federal agency, saying, "If you say, 'Defund the FBI,' let your kid be abused by an adult."

"Let me close with one other issue on defunding. If you think that state and local police can follow the Iranians, follow the Chinese, follow the Russians, follow one of the most horrific things in America, that is cyber pornography against infants. If you think they can follow white-collar crime, if you think they can follow mortgage fraud, that is not a state and local problem. You may object to what happened at Mar-a-Lago, but if you say, 'Defund the FBI,' let your kid be abused by an adult. That’s what the FBI does," Mudd said.

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Although Mudd defended the FBI's work in preventing and stopping child abuse, a 2021 report revealed the agency’s failure to prevent multiple young women and children from being sexually assaulted by former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. The report noted that at least 40 girls and women were molested over a 14-month period while the FBI was aware of sexual allegations against Nassar.

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The FBI acknowledged after the report that the lack of action was "inexcusable and a discredit" to the agency.