John Kelly says media ‘is not the enemy of the people’

Former White House chief of staff John Kelly on Wednesday said that he does not view the media as “the enemy of the people” while speaking at an event. 

“The media, in my view, and I feel very strongly about this, is not the enemy of the people,” Kelly, who previously served as the secretary of Homeland Security, said while delivering remarks at Drew University, according to the Daily Record.

{mosads}“We need a free media,” he continued. “That said, you have to be careful about what you are watching and reading, because the media has taken sides.”

“So if you only watch Fox News, because it’s reinforcing what you believe, you are not an informed citizen,” he added.

The remarks from Kelly are a break from his former boss, who has continued ongoing attacks on the press. Trump has referred to the press as “the enemy of the people” on numerous occasions since he’s taken office.

During the same event on Wednesday, Kelly also spoke on his high-profile exit from the White House at the end of 2018, about a little over a year after he was first tapped for the chief of staff role in the summer of 2017.

“I’m disappointed in myself for leaving, but it was a killer, I mean, no joke,” Kelly said, according to the local paper. 

He also took aim at past comments Trump has made characterizing some Mexican migrants as “rapists” and other criminals at the event, saying: “They’re overwhelmingly good people. … They’re not all rapists and they’re not all murderers.” 

“And it’s wrong to characterize them that way,” he said then, adding: “I disagreed with the president a number of times.”