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| Keeping up with politics is easy now |
Rob Porter, a top aide to President Trump, was accused of domestic abuse by two ex-wives, and the White House knew about it months ago. After it became public, White House officials tried to defend him, and only when that backfired did they ditch him. Then, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly told his staff to say something that appears to contradict the story about how soon he acted to fire Porter. |
White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, left, walks with White House staff secretary Rob Porter in November. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)
This is a textbook definition of scandal. The timeline of what the White House said is extremely important to understanding why, so let's walk through it:
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A year ago: The FBI, investigating Porter's background for a security clearance, informs the White House that Porter's ex-wives were prepared to make damaging accusations about him.
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Months ago: Kelly found out Porter had been accused of domestic violence and that was why he hadn't yet received a full security clearance. Kelly continued to give Porter more authority and access to classified documents and the president.
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White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)
Tuesday night: The Daily Mail publishes the abuse allegations against Porter, with interviews from his ex-wives, Jennifer Willoughby and Colbie Holderness.
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Tuesday night: Kelly issues a statement saying he's proud to stand by and defend Porter. He “is a man of true integrity and honor and I can't say enough good things about him.”
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Overnight Tuesday: One of Porter's ex-wives publishes photos of her black eye. Our White House team reports Porter privately said “she was somehow hit with the vase.”
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Sometime this week: Trump is told of the accusations, which means Kelly apparently kept him in the dark about Porter for months.
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Wednesday morning: Kelly urged Porter to stay in the job.
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Wednesday afternoon: Porter denies the allegations but says he'll resign sometime in the future. The White House continues to stand by him.
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Wednesday night: After a day of negative media coverage of how the White House has handled Porter, Kelly does a 180. In a statement, he condemns domestic violence and says he was “shocked by the new allegations.”
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Thursday afternoon: The White House says Porter had been “terminated” and that he has already cleaned out his desk.
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Friday morning: Kelly tells senior staff to spread around that he moved to fire Porter “within 40 minutes” of learning the abuse allegations were credible, which contradicts the Trump administration’s previous accounts.
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Friday afternoon: Trump speaks publicly about the Porter debacle for the first time. He defends Porter and makes no mention of his ex-wives. “He also, as you probably know, says he's innocent, and I think you have to remember that,” Trump told reporters.
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Trump on former White House aide: 'He says he's innocent'
What the White House isn't saying: Why it didn't act sooner. For most of this week, the public had access to photographs and court records. Apparently that wasn't “credible” enough for Kelly, who knew about this for months. The timeline strongly suggests the White House only ditched an ally accused of domestic abuse because it became a public relations crisis.
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Is Kelly's job in jeopardy over this?
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Kelly and Trump in February. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
It's a question we have to ask now that Kelly has done everything, it seems, to make it look as if he was complicit in protecting someone accused of domestic violence.
The No. 1 rule of Trump aides is: Don't create bad headlines for the president. Trump doesn't mind controversy. But he wants to be the one who creates it.
Former Health and Human Science secretary Tom Price resigned over taking private jets all over the country on taxpayer money. Former Trump communications director Anthony Scaramucci resigned over mouthing off in foul language about other White House staff. Former Trump ally Stephen K. Bannon got kicked out of Trump orbit for criticizing Trump and his family.
Kelly may have it worse than the others. He isn't just at the center of a scandal; he's losing trust with his staff over how he handled it. It certainly looks like they leaked Kelly's efforts to reinterpret how he handled the Porter fallout, says The Fix's Aaron Blake: "[T]hey apparently felt their only recourse was to put out word that the most powerful men in the White House were trying to mislead the American people.”
Hicks in February 2017. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
The White House's communications director, a job she got after several others left or were fired. She's also one of Trump's closest confidantes.
Why you should pay attention to her: She's also in hot water for the Porter scandal. Hicks is dating Porter and helped craft the first Porter is an honorable man statement that clearly missed the mark. A few days later, she sent out deputy press secretary Raj Shah to say the White House could have done better. Trump is reportedly mad at her for both defending Porter and apologizing for it.
“What a position for Hicks to be in,” says The Fix's Callum Borchers. “A communications aide with so little experience in politics (zero before joining the Trump campaign) is bound to make mistakes, yet she is not supposed to correct mistakes because she works for a president who is allergic to apologies.” |
Your happy hour talking point: Did you know that Trump doesn't read his daily intelligence briefing?
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The Washington Post's investigative team reports he has declined to do what seven of his predecessors have done and read a daily, dense update on some of the most important, classified happenings around the world. Instead, he asks aides to brief him orally on just a few issues. |
Why this matters: His aides say he's engaging in those discussions, but intelligence experts warn the president is likely missing nuance required to make a difficult decision in a flash. It's like reading the headline of a story rather than the actual story.
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A key political takeaway: Trump's been openly hostile to the intelligence community — the FBI started the investigation into Russia collusion that is now zeroing on whether Trump obstructed justice.
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It's impossible to separate that from Trump eschewing the daily briefing, especially since The Post reports Trump is often dismissive of his briefers, accusing them of talking down to him.
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A trivia fact for ya: The President's Daily Brief, known in intelligence circles as the PBD, is described as a newspaper with the smallest circulation in the world.
Scheduling update: Your Fix author will be on vacation all next week, and The 5-Minute Fix won't publish on President's Day, Feb. 19. In the meantime, we'll have guest posts from the rest of our Fix team. Thanks for reading!
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