"President Obama himself said he was going to stay in Washington until his daughter graduated. I think we ought to pitch in to let him go someplace else, because he is only there for one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to run a shadow government that is going to totally upset the new agenda. It just doesn't make sense."And people sit back and they say to me, 'My gosh, why can't you guys get this done?' I say, 'We've got a new CEO, we've got some new heads in the different departments, but the same people are there, and they don't believe that the new owners or the new managers should be running the ship.'"
Reached by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Kelly's office insisted the comments were supposed to be private and that he was merely reflecting Republicans' frustration with the deep state. "Rep. Kelly delivered his remarks at a private meeting to an audience of fellow Republicans. He was sharing the frustration of everyone in the room over how they believe certain Obama administration holdovers within the federal bureaucracy are attempting to upset President Trump's agenda."So apparently offering conspiracy theories about former presidents running "shadow governments" is okay if it's done behind closed doors and in the company of like-minded people.