Former Secretary of State John Kerry called recent revelations about the Trump administration “foreboding” during an appearance on CBS’s “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on Wednesday.
“It scares the hell out of me,” Kerry said, responding to the New York Times op-ed from an anonymous “senior official in the Trump administration” published on Wednesday, in which the author described efforts by White House staff to curb the president’s worst impulses.
The essay followed the publication of bombshell excerpts from a book by legendary journalist Bob Woodward, which described a similarly chaotic executive branch, earlier this week.
“It’s foreboding in so many different ways,” Kerry told Colbert. “You have somebody stealing something off the president’s desk in order to prevent him from making a decision … What it really means is we don’t have a president.”
“We have a president who is there, but he is not capable of doing the job or living up to the responsibilities,” he continued.
For his part, Trump has accused the New York Times of fabricating the op-ed, accusing the paper of making up a “phony” source. “If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!” the president tweeted late Wednesday.
On #LSSC tonight: former Secretary of State @JohnKerry helps @StephenAtHome make sense of today's surprise @nytimes op-ed. Tune in tonight for the full interview! #JohnKerry pic.twitter.com/cy3AoA07el
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) September 6, 2018