This year marks an opportunity for a "course correction" in the country's democracy, and an anonymous opinion piece from a senior official in President Donald Trump's administration provides consequences, former Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday.
"It's really part of our constitutional process and part of the right of any American to speak out and you take the consequences when you do," Kerry told MSNBC's "Morning Joe," noting that there are people who see a "higher responsibility to their country."
"What bothers me about this moment right now is everybody in Washington does know this, all the Republicans know this, they know Donald Trump is not competent," Kerry added. "He is not capable of performing the responsibilities of president, and it has enormous consequences."
The Senate, he continued, was "defined for this moment," and that calls on them to stopgap what Trump is either not doing or not capable of ever doing.
"Go back to 1971, 72," he said. "'71 is when I protested war. Richard Nixon was very popular then. He carried 49 states in '72. One year later he was gone. Why? Because people did their jobs. The institutions that were there stood up and resisted."
Kerry added that he does believe The New York Times knows who wrote the opinion piece, and published it because they had confidence and know the consequences.
"I think we have to, therefore, understand the implications of what this person has done," said Kerry. "Would I prefer, as others here, that it were public, sure, but it doesn't diminish the consequence of it."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.