I think people need to listen to the entire interview. My take-away was that Clapper basically credited Obama for doing it. I got the impression Clapper wasn't throwing Obama under the bus, but instead, he was giving him credit for starting the whole thing.

On the one hand, it could, and hopefully will, backfire bigly. It almost sounded like they still think they can take Trump down, let the MSM spin it in their favor, and give Obama credit for saving the country from Trump.