The White House on Saturday pushed back on former White House chief of staff John Kelly
John Francis KellyMORE's recent statement saying he told Trump not to hire a chief of staff who was a "yes man" in order to avoid impeachment.
President Trump
Donald John TrumpKey witness in impeachment investigation asks federal judge to rule on testifying Pompeo voices support for work of diplomat criticized by Trump Biden, Sanders defend themselves over questions of age MORE denied that Kelly ever made that statement, according to CNN.
"He never said anything like that. 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," he added.
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham
Stephanie GrishamTrump dismisses need for impeachment team: 'I'm the team' White House urges federal agencies to cancel subscriptions to NYT, WaPost The Hill's 12:30 Report — Presented by Nareit — White House cheers Republicans for storming impeachment hearing MORE also criticized Kelly in a statement to CNN.
"I worked with John Kelly, and he was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great President," she said.
Kelly, speaking at a Washington Examiner political conference Saturday said he warned Trump that he could be impeached if he didn't hire a chief of staff who would push back against bad impulses.
“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,” the former White House official said.
“That was almost 11 months ago, and I have an awful lot of, to say the least, second thoughts about leaving,” he added. “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.”
Kelly also criticized Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, calling the move a "catastrophically bad idea."
The House has launched an impeachment inquiry into Trump over his dealings with Ukraine.