Gutierrez Won’t Apologize for John Kelly ‘Disgrace to the Uniform’ Remarks — ‘I Could Have Been More Careful With the Use of My Words’

Monday on CNN’s “New Day,” Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) would not outright apologize, but only said he “could have been more careful with the use of my words” regarding his criticism of White House chief of staff John Kelly.

Gutierrez called Kelly a “disgrace to the uniform” in an interview with The Washington Post last week.

“Let me just say this — I could have been more careful with the use of my words and there are times that you need to re-evaluate,” Gutierrez said. “Having said that, I saw him, as head of Homeland Security deport grandmothers who had been for 15 years reporting dutifully to Homeland Security with their American grandchildren. Heartless actions and increasing deportations against people who presented no threat. He said to me not further than this distance, ‘I’m the one stopping DREAMers from getting deported,’ when he was head of Homeland Security. ‘I care about them. I’m defending them. I’m protecting them.'”

Gutierrez went on to rail some more against Kelly.

“It was a pretty heartless thing to do,” he said. “So, yes you can always be more careful, and I will be talking more about that in the future. And you can probably choose your words more carefully, but having said that, it really hurt. It was really painful. And I think that we need to set a standard for everybody to move forward.”

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