Whosoever dares to take to the White House podium in Donald Trump’s administration will be required first and foremost to lie. Immediately. Thursday was no different for Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah, who faced a barrage of questions about the resignation of Trump aide Rob Porter during his inaugural run at the White House briefing.
x
Raj Shah claims Kelly wasn’t “fully aware” of allegations against Porter until yesterday. Asked if he was partially aware, declines to answer.
— andrew kaczynski🤔 (@KFILE) February 8, 2018
Yeah, right. John Kelly knew for months along with the rest of top White House aides. The FBI certainly knew, which is why Porter hadn’t been granted a permanent security clearance. And yet he was hired anyway. So what’s the real reason John Kelly finally changed his tune on Porter?
Reporter: So to be clear, what was so shocking that had changed. What was so shocking?
Shah: The full nature of the allegations, particularly the images.
Particularly the images. Particularly the images. It’s just hard to know what the hell to do with that statement. Did he mean: We couldn’t trust these credible reports of abuse to the FBI from two former spouses, until “the images”? Or perhaps: We thought we could get away with keeping a wife abuser on staff, until “the images”? Or maybe Kelly himself was lost in nostalgia for a bygone era when women were so “sacred” that they kept their mouths shut about getting beat up by their husbands?
Let’s just be really clear here: There is absolutely no chance that John Kelly, the guy who guards the door to Trump’s Oval Office, didn’t realize that the person charged with carrying classified documents in didn’t have a high enough clearance to view some of those documents.
If you want a cathartic read on John Kelly, give Ruth Marcus a try: “Explain the Rob Porter story. Any of it.”