Kelly’s defense of Porter isn’t surprising
Military leaders believe their brothers in arms
How could John Kelly, the retired Marine general brought in to restore order to the Trump White House as chief of staff, have tolerated an accused wifebeater as staff secretary?
Kelly was told about Rob Porter’s alleged abuse weeks ago by the FBI, which also informed him that Porter was unlikely to receive security clearance because of it, according to Politico. On Friday, a second White House staffer stepped down after he too was accused of abusing his wife. Why would Kelly have put up with it?
Here’s one answer: the ingrained, extensive culture of sexual harassment in the military. Not just tolerating abuse, but allowing it to fester, particularly at the highest levels.
In October, a USA TODAY investigation revealed that the Pentagon had documented 500 cases of serious misconduct among generals and other senior personnel, many of them involving sexual abuses. Yet few of those cases are made public, and senior officers have been permitted to keep their ranks and retire with full honors.
USA TODAY has also reported on the military’s kid-glove treatment of those accused of domestic violence. The Air Force dropped gun charges five years ago against Airman First Class Devin Kelley after he threatened his wife with a loaded gun and attacked her 1-yearold child. In November, he gunned down his mother-in-law’s church congregation in Texas, killing 25 people.
John Kelly’s career was forged in this environment, in which military leaders believe the brothers in arms they know rather than the female victims they don’t. Perhaps it’s not surprising that Kelly would initially defend Porter, calling him “a man of integrity and honor.” As The New York Times reported, Kelly served as a character witness for a colonel who was accused of sexually harassing two female subordinates.
That culture of complicity is compounded by a White House that is overwhelmingly male. A Guardian analysis this past fall found that 80% of nominations for top Trump administration jobs have gone to men, a proportion far higher than prior presidents over the past quarter of a century.
President Trump has expressed a particular predilection for military officers. He also has consistently supported men accused of harassment and domestic abuse, from Roger Ailes to Senate candidate Rob Moore. And Trump has his own history of brushing off sexual abuse claims, including accusations by at least 19 women that he harassed them. It is entirely in character that Trump painted Porter as the victim. Trump doubled down Saturday with a tweet that supported accused men whose lives are “destroyed by a mere allegation.”
As I document in my new book That’s What She Said, researchers have shown that men in general underestimate sexist behavior. While half of women in a nationwide poll said they had been touched inappropriately by a man, for example, only a third of men thought their partners had experienced that kind of harassment.
Men who can’t see the problem can’t be expected to take steps to fix it. This doesn’t just apply to abuse and harassment. At the root is a lack of respect for women. An environment that tolerates abuse is also one that is likely to marginalize, undervalue and underpay women. The Trump administration itself last year rolled back an Obama-era equal-pay rule. In the Trump White House, men make 37% more than women, a wage gap that has tripled since the Obama administration.
Economists estimate that simply paying women equally could add $4.3 trillion to the American economy. The best step you can take to increase financial success and American competitiveness is to add more women. But that won’t happen if American leadership doesn’t recognize the value of women, doesn’t believe them, and continues to tolerate abuse. Men in an allmale bubble, talking to one another, are unlikely to be the bearers of change. And in the end, that will hurt all of us.