Former CIA agent and frequent CNN guest Phil Mudd thinks that President Trump should admit he was bluffing about the existence of possible tapes of his conversations with fired FBI director James Comey. Trump hinted tapes might exist after firing Comey.

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“I think it’s pretty straightforward,” Mudd said Friday on CNN. “We have the president who has portrayed himself as the tough guy, everything from reality TV that we talked about to the presidency. I suspect there are no tapes and now he has to come out and say the tough guy was bluffing. I think the story is going to end up being simpler in retrospect… there’s nothing there.”

The comments follow Trump's statement on Friday that “I’ll tell you about that maybe sometime in the near future," when asked about tapes.

In Comey’s testimony before the Senate on Thursday, he said the president had asked him for a pledge of loyalty. Comey urged the president to release the tapes if they exist. "Lordy, I hope there are tapes," he said.

A House panel on Friday requested the release of the tapes in a letter to the White House.

CNN’s host Dana Bash suggested that while the president may have recorded conversations on his phone or other device, the existence of a Nixon-style taping system was unlikely.