North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, one of President Donald Trump’s closest allies and most vocal defenders on Capitol Hill, is not running for reelection in 2020.

In an exclusive interview with CQ Roll Call, Meadows said he knows the timing of his retirement announcement — just after House Democrats voted to impeach Trump — will be spun a thousand different ways but that he’s been mulling this decision a long time.

“If I were just doing this on my own time frame, I would not have waited this long to do it,” the North Carolina Republican said. “You know, I’m up against a Dec. 20 deadline and and I didn’t want any decision that I made to be a distraction from the important arguments that are being made to defend the president.”

To be clear, Meadows is still planning to defend the president against the impeachment charges as the process moves to the Senate for trial. The former chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus acknowledges that his role as one of Trump’s chief defenders has encroached on his ability to serve his district and was a factor in his decision.