White House moves to stem outcry
Aides say Kelly has Trump’s confidence amid Porter fallout
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, who has pushed out a string of senior aides since taking office, is upset with chief of staff John Kelly and would like to replace him, but Republican congressional leaders and strategists are counseling him against feeding the perception of an inner circle in nonstop disarray, a person close to the White House said.
Hoping to quell the furor, the White House scrambled aides Sunday to publicly defend Kelly and his handling of the domestic violence allegations against staff secretary Rob Porter, who resigned or was fired Wednesday, a day after Kelly had praised him as “a man of integrity and honor.”
The aides denied reports that Kelly had offered his resignation, but they continued to hedge on when Kelly and other senior White House officials learned that Porter’s two ex-wives had accused him of physical and emotional abuse. Porter has denied the allegations.
By reminding voters of Trump’s own problems with the #MeToo movement against abuse of women, the latest White House turmoil threatened to overshadow the broader GOP efforts to craft a positive message about the economy and the tax cut bill before the November elections.
Three top White House officials — legislative direc- Chief of staff John Kelly, left, had praised former staff secretary Rob Porter, right, as “a man of integrity and honor.” tor Marc Short, budget director Mick Mulvaney and senior adviser Kellyanne Conway — fanned out to Sunday talk shows to say Trump has full confidence in Kelly despite the questions about when he learned that Porter’s two ex-wives had told the FBI of his violent outbursts.
That placed the White House in the awkward position of accepting as credible the women’s allegations against Porter, even as Trump took to Twitter on Saturday to defend the right of “due process” for those accused of abusive behavior or sexual misconduct.
“Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation,” Trump wrote. “Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused - life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?”
Over many years, more than a dozen women have publicly accused Trump of sexual harassment or assault. He says they are all lying and has dismissed a 2005 audio recording from the TV show “Access Hollywood” that captured him boasting in vulgar terms about such behavior as “locker room” talk.
Conway said on ABC’s “This Week” that Trump “is not actively looking for replacements” for Kelly, a retired Marine four-star general who has sought to impose discipline on a chaotic West Wing.
Conway said Trump also has full confidence in Hope Hicks, a former campaign aide who became White House communications director. News reports have said Hicks was romantically involved with Porter and helped craft an initial forceful White House statement defending him.
A person close to the White House who spoke on condition of anonymity said he expects Trump to keep Kelly rather than choose a third chief of staff. Kelly replaced Reince Priebus, who served in the White House for only six months.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Short said he did not know “who knew what when” about the ex-wives’ statements to the FBI regarding Porter, which apparently prevented him from obtaining more than an interim security clearance. More than a year into the Trump administration, Short also defended the White House’s practice of allowing people with only interim security clearances to access some of the nation’s most highly classified intelligence materials.
Those staffers include Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a senior adviser.
Conway and Short said the White House takes the issue of domestic violence seriously despite the president’s tweet Saturday that seemed to defend the accused, not the victim.
Asked about the tweet on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Conway said she had “no reason not to believe the women” who accused Porter of violence when the FBI interviewed them connection with his security clearance.
Short said on NBC that he believes Trump is “very disturbed” by the allegations. But he also said Trump’s attitude was “shaped by a lot of false accusations against him (Trump) in the past.”
Kelly and other senior aides were aware by late last fall of Porter’s difficulty in obtaining a clearance due to accusations by his former wives, but it was not clear if Kelly was aware of the extent of the alleged physical abuse.
Some Democrats questioned Kelly’s viability in the job. “Hard to see how Kelly survives,” David Axelrod, a former senior aide to President Barack Obama, tweeted. He said either Kelly didn’t know what he should have, or “likely truth, based on the timeline: He knew and looked the other way.”
Mulvaney, whose name has been floated as a possible replacement for Kelly, sought to dispel any indication he was seeking the position. “I don’t want that job,” Mulvaney said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” He added: “I think the chief of staff is doing a really good job — and most importantly, I think the president thinks he’s doing a great job as well.”