John Kelly thinks Trump wouldn't be facing impeachment if he was still around

John Kelly.
(Image credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has some regrets.

Kelly said he believes if he were still running the show in the White House, President Trump would not be the subject of an impeachment inquiry, The Washington Examiner reports. Kelly, who left the post in January, said he warned Trump a few days before he left not to replace him with a "yes man" or else he would be on a path toward impeachment.

"That was almost 11 months ago, and I have an awful lot of, to say the least, second thoughts about leaving," Kelly said during the Sea Island Summit, a political conference hosted by the Examiner. "It pains me to see what's going on because I believe if I was still there or someone like me was there, he would not be kind of, all over the place."

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Kelly's point was that Trump needs someone to check his impulses rather than just do his bidding, which does not sound like a ringing endorsement of acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, who may be on the hot seat. Kelly didn't endorse the impeachment inquiry, but he did indicate the White House bears some responsibility for it, the Examiner reports. Read more at The Washington Examiner.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.