Retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who was ousted as President Trump Donald John TrumpFederal prosecutor speaks out, says Barr 'has brought shame' on Justice Dept. Former Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick MORE’s national security adviser in 2018, said Thursday “it’s absolutely not” appropriate to solicit foreign interference in U.S. elections.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where he now serves as a chairman for one of its centers, McMaster said he never witnessed Trump solicit foreign help in domestic political issues during his time at the White House.

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“In all of the conversations, all of the meetings I was privy to, there was never any incident, I’ll just tell you, never any incident of the president soliciting any kind of assistance for anything domestic, political,” said McMaster, who served as national security adviser from February 2017 to April 2018.

“It just didn’t happen when I was there or in any conversation that I was privy to and part of, which was I think almost all the, really all the head of state calls,” he added.

But when asked generally if it is appropriate to solicit foreign interference in the political process, McMaster replied, “Of course, no. No, it’s absolutely not.”

“Of course what has to happen here is seeing our democracy play out, the separation of powers play out, and for the American people, through their representatives and their representatives in Congress, has to make a judgment as to whether or not that happened,” he added.

McMaster demurred when asked for his reaction to a rough transcript of a call between Trump and Ukraine’s president, as well as a whistleblower complaint alleging Trump pressured the Ukrainians to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden Joe BidenFormer Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick Bloomberg rolls out M ad buy to boost Biden in Florida MORE and his son Hunter. McMaster said he read the documents but couldn’t “really add anything” to what has already been said about them.

House Democrats opened an impeachment inquiry into Trump after an intelligence community whistleblower alleged the president pressured his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Biden, a leading 2020 presidential candidate, and his son.

A rough transcript of a July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released by the White House last month showed Trump asked Zelensky to work with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani Rudy GiulianiThe Hill's Campaign Report: GOP set to ask SCOTUS to limit mail-in voting CIA found Putin 'probably directing' campaign against Biden: report Democrats fear Russia interference could spoil bid to retake Senate MORE and Attorney General William Barr Bill BarrFederal prosecutor speaks out, says Barr 'has brought shame' on Justice Dept. Why a backdoor to encrypted data is detrimental to cybersecurity and data integrity FBI official who worked with Mueller raised doubts about Russia investigation MORE to investigate Biden’s role in the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor during the Obama administration.

Trump has maintained that he did nothing wrong, repeatedly characterizing his call with Zelensky as “perfect.”

On Tuesday night, White House counsel Pat Cipollone sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiDemocratic senator to party: 'A little message discipline wouldn't kill us' Overnight Health Care: New wave of COVID-19 cases builds in US | Florida to lift all coronavirus restrictions on restaurants, bars | Trump stirs questions with 0 drug coupon plan Overnight Defense: Appeals court revives House lawsuit against military funding for border wall | Dems push for limits on transferring military gear to police | Lawmakers ask for IG probe into Pentagon's use of COVID-19 funds MORE (D-Calif.) and three House committee chairmen stating that the administration would not cooperate with any of their requests related to the impeachment inquiry.

The following day, Trump said he might be willing to cooperate with the probe if House Democrats hold a formal vote to outline rules for the investigation and if those rules "are fair."