Russian President Vladimir Putin's defense Tuesday of President-elect Donald Trump is "just a continuation of his campaign to continue to poke and meddle and to mess with our heads," former Former NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden said.
"This is an absolutely perfect storm — and we've seen the results of it inside the American government," Hayden told Jake Tapper on CNN.
Putin Tuesday slammed the Obama administration at a news conference for trying to undermine Trump by spreading "fake" allegations.
He said that a dossier of unconfirmed information regarding Trump's activities and dealings with Russia were part of an effort to "undermine the legitimacy of the president-elect" despite his "convincing" victory.
Putin dismissed the document as "fake" — adding that those who ordered were "worse than prostitutes."
Hayden told Tapper that "we are off the map in terms of both our situation here, our circumstances and what the Russians are doing.
"Putin is a fairly smart guy, at least tactically," he added. "He understands his coming out and saying those kinds of things really are not viewed as a vote of confidence back here in the United States for the president-elect.
"It's just a continuation of his campaign to continue to poke and meddle and to mess with our heads in terms of the American political process."
Hayden added that he did not expect for Trump to end the FBI's investigation into the content of the leaked dossier.
"If there is an investigation ongoing by the FBI, I do think that might have to continue," he told Tapper. "More broadly, though, the intelligence community responds to the priorities of the president.
But "we're off the map," Hayden added. "We have never been in these circumstances before."
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.