Image Credits: Reuters / Kevin Lamarque.
I know what former White House chief of staff John Kelly is saying here is completely self-serving, but it’s still remarkable anyway:
John Kelly warned President Trump that hiring a “yes man” to succeed him as White House chief of staff would lead to impeachment and, in hindsight, regrets his decision to resign…
…Kelly, 69, said he privately cautioned Trump during his final days on the job that he would be impeached if he did not tap a chief of staff with the fortitude to check the president’s bad impulses. Kelly said he does not believe the president would be in this predicament had he stayed.
“I said, whatever you do — and we were still in the process of trying to find someone to take my place — I said whatever you do, don’t hire a ‘yes man,’ someone who won’t tell you the truth — don’t do that. Because if you do, I believe you will be impeached,” Kelly recalled, in an interview at the Sea Island Summit, a political conference hosted by the Washington Examiner.
“That was almost 11 months ago, and I have an awful lot of, to say the least, second thoughts about leaving,” Kelly said. “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.”
Imagine telling your boss that he’s probably going to go to jail if he doesn’t hire someone to replace you who will prevent him from committing crimes. That’s basically the dynamic Kelly describes. After working closely with the president as his main advisor for almost a year and a half, their relationship developed to the point that Kelly felt comfortable telling Trump that, left to his own devices, he would undoubtedly commit either treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors warranting his removal from office.
What does that tell us?
