White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter is telling associates that some senior White House officials strongly encouraged him to "stay and fight," and claims he "never misrepresented anything" to Chief of Staff John Kelly.
Why it matters: This White House has a culture problem, starting at the top. The natural instinct is to defend/deny and show scant, if any, concern for the women alleging misconduct and harm. And when the going gets tough internally, the other natural instinct is to blame everyone but yourself.
It should be noted that Trump himself offered this reaction when asked about Porter's resignation:
"I found out about it recently and I was surprised by it," Trump said. "We certainly wish him well. It's obviously a very tough time for him. He did a very good job while he was in the White House."
"We hope that he will have a wonderful career," Trump added.
Trump said "it was very sad when we heard about it."
Trump focused on Porter's denial of the allegations that he struck his two-ex-wives while they were married. "He says he's innocent, and I think you have to remember that," Trump said.
"He said very strongly yesterday that he's innocent, but you'll have to talk to him about that."
So essentially Trump was insinuating that the women were liars, and seems very defensive about losing Porter.
But that is NOT the story that Kelly wants told about his reaction:
According to the member of Congress, giving the most detailed Kelly version of events so far:
In Kelly’s telling, Porter misrepresented to him that the Daily Mail story would be about a messy marriage and divorce, with allegations of verbal and emotional abuse.
Kelly specifically asked Porter about physical abuse of both ex-wives and girlfriends, and Porter denied that.
Upon Porter’s denials, Kelly allowed the White House press team to write a statement giving a wholehearted endorsement of Porter as a man of great integrity. (This was Kelly’s initial statement.)
Kelly is telling associates that only when the Daily Mail story published online on Tuesday night did he learn the real story.
Kelly says he immediately took action: he confronted Porter, told him he had to resign, then called President Trump to inform him of his decision. This is what Kelly means when he tells colleagues he acted quickly and settled the matter within 40 minutes.
However it should be remembered that this was what Kelly said right after the story of Porter's spousal abuse became public:
"Rob Porter is a man of true integrity and honor and I can't say enough good things about him … I am proud to serve alongside him."
That does not sound like a man who "acted quickly" when he learned that his trusted subordinate had a history of beating the shit out of the women in his life.
By the way even some of Kelly's White House aides are calling bullshit on his version of events.
This Trump White House is almost literally bulging with habitual liars so it is almost impossible to discern who might be telling the truth at any given time.
But in this case I am thinking that Kelly is simply in CYA mode right now, and is lying his ass off to keep his job.
Source http://ift.tt/2EgW9aF
