Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said Wednesday that President Donald Trump saying he was "looking forward" to being interviewed by Russia special counsel Robert Mueller under oath was "good news" for the White House and the nation.
"There is a cloud over the presidency," Hayden, who also directed the NSA, told Anderson Cooper on CNN. "We can debate why there's a cloud, but there's no doubt there's a cloud.
"Both the president and America would be well served by getting out from under this cloud.
"I see no way that we do that to the satisfaction of most Americans until the president talks to Bob Mueller."
President Trump told reporters at an impromptu session at the White House he was willing to talk to Mueller's investigators on the Russia probe, but would follow the advice of his lawyers on the matter.
"Will he do it with the advice of counsel?" Hayden asked Cooper. "Of course.
"No one should talk to the bureau without their lawyer in the room," he added. "There's jeopardy.
"But the president's instincts, which he seems to suggest [Wednesday], was that I got to go do this.
"Those are the right instincts."
Hayden, 72, a retired four-star Air Force general, added he would expect for Mueller's staff to be "very disciplined" to Trump in any session — "and they'll demand that the president answer the questions.
"What the president says will matter, no matter what kind of intervention that the president's lawyers might say.
"What the president says is going to matter."
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