AUSTIN — Neither the Trump administration nor House Democrats properly handled a whistleblower’s complaint about President Donald Trump’s conversation with the leader of Ukraine, U.S. Rep. Will Hurd said late Thursday.

The complaint should have been shared with Congress after seven days, as a federal law designed to allow intelligence officers to report wrongdoing requires, and not after nearly a month, Hurd said at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.

And Trump’s remark Thursday that spies in the country’s early days were better handled — an apparent allusion to execution for treason — was unfortunate.

“I wouldn’t have said it,” said Hurd, a former CIA officer and Republican from the San Antonio suburb of Helotes.

Because Trump made the comment before foreign service officers, it could hurt morale in the American diplomatic corps as well as among intelligence service employees, he said.

Related: Dallas Rep. Colin Allred backs Pelosi's impeachment inquiry against Trump in light of 'troubling' revelations

Still, Hurd criticized House Democrats for holding a hearing on the whistleblower's complaint in public instead of behind closed doors. The Senate's intelligence panel did that Thursday, and did it correctly, he said.

"This is not kicking somebody off of Survivor, right?" he said. "This is a serious process. ... We can learn from the senators in how they're moving forward."

Hurd said that at Thursday's nationally televised hearing of the House intelligence committee, acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire "was unfairly targeted by some of the people on the other side of the aisle" — Democrats — who accused him of slow-walking release of the whistleblower's complaint.

Hurd, one of only two GOP African Americans in Congress, is the only Republican federal lawmaker who served in the CIA. With news reports saying the whistleblower is a CIA officer assigned to the White House, Hurd stressed the need to protect the person’s identity.

“The pressure that that person is going to get is going to be unreal,” he said. “That is the reason why this whole process should have been handled a little more delicately.”

Picking up on a line of fellow Republicans on the House panel Thursday, Hurd said it was troubling — and could hurt U.S. foreign policy — that parts of three conversations Trump has had with foreign leaders have become public.

“This is the third time a transcript between the president and a foreign leader has been leaked,” he said. “That has an impact on our ability to do diplomacy.”

He emphasized, though, that the person who filed the complaint about Trump’s conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appeared blameless — and acted as the law requiring such sensitive complaints requires.

“This person is not a spy,” he said. “Let me say that very clearly. This is clearly somebody who knew the consequences of what he or she was doing ... and they shared it through the right mechanism.”

Asked by Texas Tribune chief executive Evan Smith if Trump’s conduct merits impeachment, Hurd demurred.

Unlike the vast majority of GOP lawmakers who condemned Democrats' moves toward impeachment, he merely said it was too early to consider it.

“That’s a premature conversation to have,” he said.

“There’s a lot of disturbing allegations” in the whistleblower’s complaint, he said. Still, the House should hold full hearings and chase various leads before deciding whether to vote on articles of impeachment. A trial, if any, would be held in the Senate.

Hurd, 42, who is resigning from the House after three terms, continued to duck questions about what he’ll do next. He said he wants to elevate civic discourse and help reduce partisanship in U.S. politics.

He did not rule out running for president someday.

On race and immigration, Trump should tone down his rhetoric, said Hurd, recounting discrimination that his parents, a mixed race couple, faced in East Texas in the 1970s.

“His language needs to be reformed and changed,” he said of Trump.

CORRECTION, 4:11 p.m., Sept. 27, 2019: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Hurd is one of only two African American members of Congress. He is one of just two Republicans in Congress who are black.