White House grapples with Porter resignation fallout
Reeling from the downfall of a senior aide, the White House was on the defensive Sunday, attempting to soften President Donald Trump’s comments about the mistreatment of women while rallying around the embattled chief of staff.
Several senior aides fanned out on the morning talk shows to explain how the White House handled the departure of staff secretary Rob Porter, a rising West Wing star who exited after two ex-wives came forward with allegations of spousal abuse. And they tried to clarify the reaction from Trump, who has yet to offer a sympathetic word to the women who said they had been abused.
“The president believes, as he said the other day, you have to consider all sides,” said senior counselor Kellyanne Conway. “He has said this in the past about incidents that relate to him as well. At the same time, you have to look at the results. The result is that Rob Porter is no longer the staff secretary.”
On Saturday, Trump tweeted that “lives are being shattered and destroyed mentioned as a possible Kelly successor if Trump were to make a change, also downplayed speculation about Kelly’s standing.
But Trump has grown frustrated with Kelly, once commended for bringing discipline to the West Wing but who recently has been at the center of his own controversies.
Trump has begun floating possible names for a future chief of staff in conversations with outside advisers, according to three people with knowledge of the conversations but not authorized to discuss them.
In addition to Mulvaney, the others are House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Mark Meadows and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
Mulvaney said no one has talked to him and “I don’t want that job.”
Trump is known to frequently poll his advisers about the performance of senior staff and is often reluctant to actually fire aides. Kelly has indicated he would step aside if he lost the faith of the president. But he has not offered to resign.
As the aftershocks of the accusations against Porter reverberated for a sixth day, Trump stayed out of sight on a rainy Sunday in Washington. Showing little regard for the #MeToo movement, he has followed a pattern of giving the benefit of the doubt to powerful men and insisting upon his own innocence in the face of allegations of sexual misconduct from more than a dozen women.
“I think the president’s shaped by a lot of false accusations against him in the past,” said legislative director Marc Short, who added that Trump was “very disappointed” by the charges against Porter.
“And I think that he believes that the resignation was appropriate.”