Former White House chief of staff John Kelly says he warned President Trump before he resigned that hiring a “yes man” to succeed him could lead to impeachment, The Washington Examiner reports. “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,” Kelly said during an interview at the Sea Island Summit, a political conference hosted by the Examiner. His statement contradicts many Republican allies of the president who have argued that the House Democrats are determined to impeach the president, regardless of the reason.

Kelly also said he regrets resigning, and hinted that the impeachment inquiry would not be happening if Trump had not put Mick Mulvaney in his place. On top of Mulvaney’s questionable choices in recent days, Kelly suggested that the acting chief of staff has not been able to rein in some of Trump’s bad impulses. “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 said. “Someone has got to be a guide that tells [the president] that you either have the authority or you don’t, or Mr. President, don’t do it.”