Rob Porter, former White House staff secretary was forced to resign on Wednesday following pressure from accusations of domestic abuse leveled against him. Porter is alleged for domestically abusing his ex-wives. The White House and especially the Chief of Staff, John Kelly was not fully privy to the seriousness of the allegations until the photos of one of Porter’s ex-wives emerged online.
On first hearing the accusations, White House and John Kelly defended Rob as honorable and man of integrity. They explained Rob to be hard working and would not think he can commit such allegations as accused by his ex-wives.
Change of Position When Photos Were Released
A photo of Jennifer Willoughby, one of Porter’s ex-wife was released by The DailyMail.com online news outlet. The photo depicted Jennifer’s black eye, which she told the news agency she got while on a vacation with Porter in Italy. The plight quickly changed John Kelly’s opinion on the top White House aide. John stated that the new findings to Porter’s allegations swayed him and that he was shocked because he believes there is no place for domestic violence in this world.
White House acknowledged that Porter’s last day on the job was on Wednesday when he resigned. The Backlash White House received was about Rob Porter’s employment. How could it happen while his position is a security scrutinized post? It means that Porter’s position warrants a background security check that was likely to flag his alleged violence nature. Seeing to it that he was employed in the White House, Americans questioned the authenticity of employment procedures in the White House.
The blame was directed towards John Kelly, Trump’s Chief of Staff. Under his scope, he is tasked with vetting White House employees besides staff management skills. Martin Heinrich, a Democrat Senator, stated that if the chief of staff was aware of Porter’s transgressions and covered it up, then he too should resign.
White House’s Response to Criticisms
White House Spokesperson, Raj Shah explained to reporters that Porter’s position required a security clearance due to its close nature to interactions with the president. He added that Porter was yet to be approved for a security clearance because his required security background check was still ongoing. Raj also informed reporters that Trump was not aware of Rob’s security clearance before Tuesday and was equally surprised by the abuse allegations.
Shah also defended Kelly stating that he too was not fully aware of the extent of accusations when he defended Porter on Tuesday.
