The Weekly Standard’s Steve Hayes said Thursday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that the process of uncovering any Russian meddling in the U.S election "doesn't look good."

He added that there are questions about the process, "did this come from the White House, was it presented to Chairman Nunes who then took it public and to the president and made a big deal about it. Was there an effort to spin this story to create some PR pushback for President Trump?"

Hayes added that questions surround the previous administration's involvement in the intelligence gathering.

"It's certainly the case that Chairman Nunes and those who are familiar with the material that he's seen believe there was real wrongdoing," he said.

The Senate intelligence committee opened its first public hearing on Russian meddling in the 2016 election but Hayes said that if we see "this unmasking and the tasking for the unmasking has come from the White House or the NSC, the Obama administration, then I think that raises additional questions."