Gen. John Kelly said he warned President Donald Trump that hiring a "yes man" chief of staff would lead to impeachment, but the president said that never happened, and the White House press secretary said Kelly was "unequipped" to handle Trump's "genius."
"I worked with John Kelly, and he was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great president," White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told The New York Times' Annie Karni.
Grisham's quip followed the president's denial his former chief of staff ever warned him of impeachment if he were to replace him with a "yes man."
"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," Kelly reportedly told a political summit hosted by the Washington Examiner.
"Because if you do, I believe you will be impeached."
The president issued a statement through Grisham:
"John Kelly never said that, he never said anything like that," Trump reportedly said. "If he would have said that I would have thrown him out of the office. He just wants to come back into the action like everybody else does."
Trump might be correct about Kelly's desires to return, if not regrets on leaving.
"That was almost 11 months ago, and I have an awful lot of, to say the least, second thoughts about leaving," Kelly continued, per BizPacReview. "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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