President Donald Trump declared Wednesday in the wake of staff secretary Rob Porter’s departure that he is ‘totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind.’
‘Everyone knows that,’ Trump told reporters, ‘and it almost wouldn’t even have to be said.’
But with support for Chief of Staff John Kelly waning inside the White House, Trump continued on Wednesday to miss easy opportunities to give the retired Marine Corps general his public backing.
‘Did your staff handle the [Rob] Porter allegations properly?’ one reporter asked him following a planned event to tout his infrastructure plans. ‘Is General Kelly’s job safe?’ another shouted.
The president sat stone-faced, uttering an occasional ‘thank you’ while his press aides shooed journalists and cameramen out of the Cabinet Room.
President Donald Trump broke his silence about domestic violence on Wednesday, saying in the wake of his staff secretary’s chaotic departure that he is ‘totally opposed’ to it
Hours earlier the president had missed several opportunities to express his continuing support for Chief of Staff John Kelly
Rob Porter (right) was forced out of his sensitive position at the White House after DailyMail.com reported on his ex-wives’ allegations of long-term domestic violence
Colbie Holderness, Porter’s first wife, (left) told DailyMail.com that he repeatedly punched and choked her. His second wife Jennifer Willoughby (right) has also claimed that Porter was abusive in their marriage
Porter, a former White House staff secretary, had been under consideration for a promotion recently, even as he failed to get a permanent background check after the FBI briefed West Wing officials about claims of abuse against him.
The White House is still under fire and seems unable to offer a coherent narrative for who knew about the accusations against Porter and when they learned them.
DailyMail.com first published accusations of domestic abuse by Porter’s two ex-wives.
Kelly in particular has been on the hot seat as questions swirl about his depth of knowledge about the reasons for Porter’s security clearance problems.
One White House official told The Washington Post that Kelly is ‘a big fat liar’ and ‘his handling of the Porter scandal amounts to dereliction of duty.’
Another said it was no surprise that Kelly hadn’t been more transparent or honest as the crisis developed.
‘In this White House, it’s simply not in our DNA. Truthful and transparent is great, but we don’t even have a coherent strategy to obfuscate,’ the official said.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly considered Porter a key aide. Now he is under fire for the handling of the accused spouse abuser
FBI director Christopher Wray testified before a Senate panel Friday that the FBI informed the White House on four separate occasions about the status of his background check – providing a completed investigation in July and additional materials later, before closing the file last month.
One post he was angling for was deputy chief of staff. The current deputy, Jim Caroll, is stepping down to run the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Kelly ‘definitely wanted to expand his role,’ a source told CNN. A source told DailyMail.com last week: ‘Not only does John Kelly not rid himself of the guy but talked openly about promoting him to the deputy chief of staff.’
‘He put his own priorities before that of the country and the president,’ the source vented.
Porter resigned as staff secretary only last Wednesday after DailyMail.com reported on his ex wives’ claims of spousal abuse.
As staff secretary, Porter already had a role where he reported directly to Kelly and the president, charged with safeguarding sensitive and even classified documents and steering paper to the president.
Kelly considered him an important part of a team meant to professionalize the White House.
All along, there were warnings about his past – although the White House wouldn’t directly respond to questions about who knew.
‘The FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March, and then a completed background investigation in late July,’ said FBI Director Christopher Wray
ARE WE CLEAR? White House senior adviser Jared Kushner (L), White House chief of staff John Kelly (C) and White House staff secretary Rob Porter in the Oval Office. Neither Kushner nor Porter got their final security clearance
FBI director Christopher Wray – whom Trump appointed – directly contradicted the Trump administration on Tuesday, saying under oath that the bureau gave the White House four separate reports about disgraced former aide Rob Porter’s security clearance investigation – with the first heads-up coming 11 months ago.
Responding to a question from Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Wray spelled out the process in which the bureau ‘briefed’ the White House while Porter was operating with a temporary clearance and had access to some of America’s most closely held secrets.
‘The FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March, and then a completed background investigation in late July,’ Wray said, adding that ‘soon thereafter we received requests for [a] followup inquiry, and we did the followup and provided that information in November,’ Wray said.
But White House press secretary Sarah Sanders says the White House’s past claims were still accurate because it hadn’t received a final report from an obscure internal office, the White House personnel security office, which she said is staffed by career officials.
‘We find those statements to be consistent with one another,’ Sanders said. She said the office had not completed its recommendation.