‘We Live in the United States of Arrogance’: CNN’s Phil Mudd Trashes America as ‘Mediocre,’ Argues it Should Copy Asia and Europe

CNN analyst Philip Mudd attacked America as the “United States of arrogance” on Wednesday, and said it should do more to emulate Europe and Asia in areas including education, health care, and gun violence.

“This will offend you, but we live in the United States of arrogance,” Mudd said in a segment with CNN’s John Berman. “I’m a proud American, but we live in the United States of arrogance. If you look at educational standards in this country, they are mediocre, because we cannot look to Asia and Europe and say somebody has a better way. If you look at access to health care in this country, we are mediocre because we cannot look to Asia and Europe and say other people have better access, we should learn. If you look at violent crime and suicide by weapon, and you look at Asia and Europe, we simply look at Americans and say we’re exceptional — we cannot look at other countries and say we can learn.”

“This country has a problem with arrogance, John, and you’re seeing it in spades when we’re dealing with these violent crimes,” he added.

Mudd, a former counterintelligence officer for the CIA, made the comments with a focus on gun control in the aftermath of Monday’s shooting in Boulder, Colorado, by a perpetrator who had already been under the FBI’s microscope. Mudd argued that gun regulations were a more effective approach to curbing violence than finding potential criminals.

“Do we want … friends or family calling federal authorities, or state authorities, and saying my family member shouldn’t have a weapon?” Mudd said. “How are you supposed to investigate this at the state and local or federal level? There’s 330 million people.”

Watch above via CNN.