Fiona Hill

And I knew what was going on and I should do something.

You know, if not me, then, you know, okay, someone else will go and do it.

But can I live with myself just sitting on the sidelines and criticizing what people are doing, you know, and kind of worrying about this?

Or am I actually going to muck in there and, you know, just go and do something?

It's like seeing your house on fire and you see that, you know, okay, this is pretty awful and dangerous, but I could go in there and do something.

Well, in 2016, you know, when the Russians had interfered in the election.

You know, I mean, basically, this was a huge national security crisis.

And our politics, we'd gone mad as a result of it.

And we, in fact, we were making the situation worse.

And I felt that I could, you know, kind of at the time, maybe I could do something here.

I could try to clarify.

I could, you know, work with others who I knew in the government from previous stints in the government to push back against this and try to make sure it didn't happen again.

And look, and I also didn't have this, you know, mad, you know, kind of crazy ideological view of Russia either.

I mean, I knew the place.

I knew the people had been sitting a long time and quite calm about it.

I don't take it personally.

It's not kind of an extension of self.

It's, you know, something I've spent a long time trying to understand for myself, going back to that very beginning of why were the Russians trying to blow us up?

There must be an explanation.

There was.