John Kelly on Leaving DHS to Serve as Trump’s Chief of Staff: ‘God Punished Me’
Chief of Staff John Kelly on the DHS: “I wish I had worked harder in the six months I had in the job, to not only better protect the men and women that get beat up so badly every day, but to really advertise in a much more effective way how good you are.” https://t.co/pyLwynjCCo pic.twitter.com/qm9dMSyKhe
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 1, 2018
Beleaguered White House chief of staff John Kelly sarcastically said he would have preferred to stay at the Department of Homeland Security, but was instead “punished” by God and ended up in Donald Trump’s White House.
While he has been under heavy media criticism over the past couples weeks for his handling of ex-White House official Rob Porter’s domestic abuse allegations, Kelly was previously seen as the “adult in the room” at the Trump administration — particularly when he was first brought on amid the White House chaos of July 2017. His reputation has since changed for the worse, which may explain his joke of divine punishment.
“The last thing I wanted to do was walk away from one of the great honors of my life, being the secretary of Homeland Security, but I did something wrong and God punished me, I guess,” Kelly said while speaking at a 15th anniversary event for the department he led for just six months.
The former Marine general continued his remarks by saying, “I wish I had worked harder in the six months I had in the job to not only better protect the men and women that get beat up so badly every day, but to really advertise in a much more effective way how good you are.
[images via screengrab]
