John Kelly is caught up in a whole new scandal
Remember when retired military General John Kelly was supposed to be the guy who would step in and clean up Donald Trump’s scandalous and poorly run White House? This always seemed dubious, considering Kelly’s overtly racist record toward non-white immigrants when he was running Homeland Security. In the months since he’s become the White House Chief of Staff, we’ve gradually seen Kelly make one racist remark after another. Now it turns out Kelly is also a different kind of piece of crap – this time with regard to women.
After the media reported that White House aide Rob Porter had been accused of beating up two ex-wives, and that a judge had seen enough evidence to grant a restraining order to one of them, Porter resigned his job today. This kind of thing isn’t supposed to happen in the White House. There are a number of background checks and other processes designed to prevent someone with this kind of record from holding such a sensitive job. But it turns out this wasn’t the usual Trump White House incompetence.
John Kelly knew all along that Porter’s ex-wife had a protective restraining order against him, according to Politico (link), and Kelly allowed the guy to have the job anyway. Can you imagine hiring a guy with that kind of record, and subjecting your female employees to that kind of potential risk to their personal safety? This guy’s past was enough of a problem that he couldn’t even get the proper security clearance for his job, yet Kelly seemed to think it was a great idea to have him in the White House.
Not only that, John Kelly is still siding with this guy. He had White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders emphasize that Porter wasn’t pressured into his resignation. Then Kelly released a statement of his own, calling Porter “a man of true integrity and honor.” Later, Kelly released a different statement siding with domestic abuse victims. Sorry, too late. Kelly is a seething racist who sides with guys whose ex-wives have had to get protective restraining orders against them. John Kelly is no better than Donald Trump. No wonder they’ve stuck together.
