President-elect Donald Trump's transition to the White House is taking place in an extremely public way and former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, who abruptly left the team this week, said Wednesday he's not sure that's such a good thing.
"This is probably the most public affair of the tradition I've seen in my lifetime and I'm not sure that's healthy," the former Michigan lawmaker told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
"I think some of the changes are good. Some of the changes I would, maybe would have done a little differently... the substance of the transition is ongoing. Those people are showing up every day like they have for five months to put this together so that the president-elect can have policies ready to go."
Rogers stepped away from the transition team on Monday, just days after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was demoted from heading the unit. Officially, the governor is being called a vice-chairman, but he no longer is a visible part of the team.
"This is a normal course of action," Rogers, a CNN national security commentator after leaving office, told Blitzer. "Now that the vice president elect has signed the papers and is firmly in charge of the transition, I think you'll see that some of those wrinkles will get ironed out."
Rogers said Christie brought him to handle national security while gathering people who could handle different parts of the team to ready answers on Trump's agenda, and ensuring the information could be completed and ready on Election Day. Rogers said that part is finished.
"I think the transition in that regard is much further along," said Rogers. "This is the human resources part of the fight going on.
Rogers said he stepped away after he was called and told the team was going in a different direction, but he doesn't know what Christie was told. However, he said he had a "great conversation" with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who now heads the transition team, and "they're still looking for that input, still looking for people to contribute in a positive way."
However, Pence did not ask him to rejoin the team, Rogers said, and even if he had, he does not think that would be a good idea.
"My work was done, honestly," he told Blitzer. "We did all of the policy review, they call them agency action teams. Now there's a phase called landing teams where these people will go into the agencies."
Meanwhile, Rogers said he hasn't been formally asked about taking a position in the Trump administration, but he has been told that he shouldn't "count it out."
However, he said he wouldn't go "that far," when Blitzer asked if there would be a possibility that he could be sought out to become CIA director.
"What happens in early days everybody starts thinking about themselves and not what is at stake and that national security portfolio to me is incredibly important, same with the economic portfolio," said Rogers.
"Once these HR decisions are worked through, I think you will see the wrinkles ironed out, and a machine up and running."