Repulsed by the Trump White House’s defense of alleged violent abuser Rob Porter, Congresswoman Betty McCollum (DFL-MN) called on Trump to fire White House Chief of Staff John Kelly for what she called “his domestic abuse cover-up.”
“President Donald Trump’s comments today defending White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter demonstrate that the Trump-Pence White House is an environment that lacks any shred of decency and is completely at odds with the values of the American people, especially the women of this country,” McCollum wrote in a statement sent to PoliticusUSA. “With his outspoken endorsement of accused child molester Roy Moore and now his sympathetic defense of a violent domestic abuser, it is clear that President Trump is willing to excuse the vilest forms of abuse.”
“The severity of the Porter scandal demands President Trump immediately fire White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. Mr. Kelly has jeopardized national security by allowing his subordinate, White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter — who was never granted a permanent security clearance — to control the President of the United States’ most highly classified documents. To be clear, Mr. Kelly empowered and defended a domestic abuser in a highly sensitive role despite evidence from the FBI that he could not receive a security clearance.”
McColum also called for a Congressional investigation into the “reckless conduct of the inner circle in the White House with classified national security documents,” as well as which White House staff were aware of Porter’s repeated domestic violence, and why John Kelly allowed Porter to handle classified information.”
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She closed with a rather appropriate moniker for this Congress, “Instead of a Cover-Up Congress, we need full accountability.â€
Donald Trump surrounds himself with men who abuse and mistreat women. One of Porter’s ex-wives told the Daily Mail she told the FBI about the abuse during his background check. So the Trump White House knew.
This is the White House run by a man who called a woman journalist a “c*nt” when she reported something unflattering about him and harassed another for years when she rejected him. This is not a White House that upholds the laws that protect women; these are the men your mom taught you to avoid.
McCollum is right, Trump should fire John Kelly.
But of course, that would require standards and values that Trump doesn’t have or even pretend to have. This is a man whose own ex-wife wrote that he violently grabbed her and then forced himself on her when he was unhappy with his hair transplant procedure. This is a man who bragged on tape about assaulting women. He’s not going to fire John Kelly unless he thinks he has to or it serves him in some other way.
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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