Former CIA Director James Woolsey pushed back against the righteous indignation directed at President Donald Trump over his Phoenix rally, saying this president hasn't said "anything as foolish" as a former Republican predecessor.
"I don't think Donald Trump has said anything as foolish as George W. Bush's looking into Putin's eyes and seeing his soul," Woolsey said on CNN on Wednesday night. "What (Bush) should have seen were the initials KGB, on each eyeball."
Woolsey was referring to Bush's remarks in 2001 saying he found Russian president Vladimir Putin to be "straightforward and trustworthy."
Nor is Trump responsible for abdicating power to Putin.
"Nobody caused as much increase in the power of Putin as President [Barack] Obama when he drew the red line and said to Assad, 'You will not use chemical weapons against your own people,'" Woolsey said. "Assad did, and President Obama's solution was to turn the problem over to Russia."
At the end of the day, Woolsey told CNN host Don Lemon, Trump's speech in Phoenix was much ado about nothing, and he pushed back on former director of national intelligence James Clapper for his comments Tuesday night.
"I think Jim Clapper has taken this concern rather substantially beyond what has occurred," Woolsey said.
"You can have a lot of disagreements with (Trump) about things he's said politically, and the crazy business with what happened at the University of Virginia with his comments and so forth," Woolsey said. "I think the sort of thing Jim just said pushes the envelope beyond where it oughta be."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.