John Kerry: 'It's a mistake to talk about impeachment'

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John Kerry on Syria, Iran deal, Democrats ahead of midterms

Former secretary of state talks about meeting with Iranian officials and says the diplomatic initiative is missing in Syria. On 'The Daily Briefing,' Kerry opens up about his new book 'Every Day Is Extra.'

Ahead of the impending midterm elections, John Kerry on Wednesday said he didn't favor some specific Democrat talking points, including a call to abolish ICE and a push to impeach President Trump.

Instead of abolishing ICE, Kerry instead advocated for "reforming and fixing" it. If the agency is eliminated, he argued, “you’re going to have to invent” something else in its place.

Kerry, the former secretary of state in the Obama administration, made the remarks during an interview on Fox News' “The Daily Briefing” with Dana Perino, where he also discussed his new book, “Every Day is Extra.”

Regarding calls to impeach President Trump – of which Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., has been a leading proponent of – Kerry described the maneuver as a miscalculation.

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“I think it’s a mistake to talk about impeachment. I think that we shouldn't be politicizing it. If you put it in the discussion now, you’re making something political,” Kerry said. “I think we have to be really careful and be very analytical about whatever evidence is there and it’s not there yet because the Mueller investigation really has to run its course and then you can make an evaluation.”

The former secretary of state also touched on topics like Iran and Syria, the latter of which he said would not be resolved via “a military solution” but rather with “an agreement.”

“I agreed with President Trump’s use of force, I thought it was the appropriate thing to do. What I think was missing, and is still missing, is the diplomatic initiative because there’s not going to be a military solution to the opposition in Syria,” Kerry said. “Yes, you can clear the community, you can drop a lot of bombs but the only way to finally try to put the country back on track is having an agreement.”

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He added that “no solution to the problem in Syria” can be made without also having countries like Iran and Russia, “at the table.”

Kerry also defended the Iran nuclear deal, which he helped negotiate, saying that even with the agreement, other sanctions were placed on the country. Trump has since withdrawn the U.S. from the deal, which Kerry said he believes has made the situation more difficult.

“What people don’t realize is even in the agreement that we made with Iran with respect to their nuclear weapons, we kept the sanctions on missiles,” Kerry said. “We kept the sanctions on human rights abuses. We kept the sanctions on their transferred weapons to Yemen. And we raised those sanctions several times.”

“So we object as much as anybody to those activities. But we differ in how you’re going to control them. We believe by pulling out unilaterally, the president has actually made it harder for an Iranian leader to deal with him,” Kerry continued.