Jack Welch, former General Electric chairman & CEO, wants to make it clear: He still supports his replacement, current CEO Jeff Immelt, despite company's worse-than-expected first quarter earnings.
"Nothing, nothing, nothing is as disgusting to me as some old CEO chirping away about how things are not as good under the new guy as they were under him," Welch said in a Thursday appearance on CNBC.
"... GE is a great company, with a great model, with a helluva CEO who's reshuffled the business portfolio to make it stronger ... and I'm in 100 percent support of everything going on there."
Welch made the comments (full version in the accompanying video, above) following widespread media attention to an earlier appearance he made on CNBC, where he seemingly took Immelt to task for GE's earnings miss.
In that Wednesday appearance on CNBC, which is owned by GE, Welch said: "Jeff has a credibility issue."
Those comments rippled through media and Wall Street circles as a very public scolding by the high-profile former chief of his former protege's current performance. But in clarifying those remarks Thursday, Welch said that was never his intention.