Former FBI Agent Who Don Jr. Insulted Defends Him: ‘Not Going to Begrudge a Son For Protecting His Father’

Over the weekend, FBI agent Josh Campbell wrote an op-ed for The New York Times in which he explained his decision to leave the bureau.

“[A]ttacks by powerful people…could destroy the institution,” Campbell wrote. He added, “My resignation is painful, but the alternative of remaining quiet while the bureau is tarnished for political gain is impossible.”

Campbell will be speaking out, henceforth, on CNN — where he has been hired as a contributor. His first appearance on the network came Monday morning on New Day, where he chatted with Alisyn Camerota. And in his first chance to speak out against someone who tarnished the FBI for political gain, Campbell opted, instead, to defend the man who did the tarnishing.

Camerota asked the former agent about a Tweet from Donald Trump Jr., in which the president’s son blasted Campbell and CNN:

You would think their stable is full in the hate on Trump department. Ahh, who am I kidding? It’s CNN of course there’s more room. https://t.co/cLLwI15hQ6

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 3, 2018

Campbell took the high road.

“I’m not going to begrudge a son for protecting his father,” Campbell said. “I can only imagine what that situation is like.

“And I’ll also say that whether you’re a citizen or whether you’re in government, you have to respect that the president is a Commander-in-Chief. We have to respect that office. Full stop. I don’t want to get into politics of it. From a practitioner standpoint throughout the agency, as I mentioned we just want the temperature to come down. If we need to have an important national discussion on certain actions that took place in the FBI it’s something we’ll certainly welcome. We just want the temperature to come down so we can have an effective dialogue.”

Watch above, via CNN.

[featured image via screengrab]

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