After Porter scandal, Kelly faults White House handling but says no reason to quit
White House chief of staff John Kelly said Friday that he had "absolutely nothing to even consider resigning" over, after weeks of speculation about his job security stemming from questions about how he had handled security clearances for dozens of top staffers.
The issue came to the fore after allegations of domestic abuse against Rob Porter forced him to resign as staff secretary, with lawmakers and political experts wondering why Porter was allowed to handle top-secret information regularly with an interim security clearance.
Fielding questions from a small group of reporters, Kelly spoke Friday about the White House's response to the initial news on Porter.
"We didn't cover ourselves in glory in terms of how we handled that on Wednesday morning," Kelly said, referring to the day after The Daily Mail broke the Porter story. Kelly said he first learned of allegations against Porter the day before, on Tuesday, Feb. 6.
Kelly said Porter denied the allegations, which the chief of staff initially believed to be about "some level of emotional abuse" in relation to a "messy divorce."
The allegations, however, were also of physical abuse — and eventually pictures were published to support claims from Porter's two ex-wives.
The issue came to the fore after allegations of domestic abuse against Rob Porter forced him to resign as staff secretary, with lawmakers and political experts wondering why Porter was allowed to handle top-secret information regularly with an interim security clearance.
Fielding questions from a small group of reporters, Kelly spoke Friday about the White House's response to the initial news on Porter.
"We didn't cover ourselves in glory in terms of how we handled that on Wednesday morning," Kelly said, referring to the day after The Daily Mail broke the Porter story. Kelly said he first learned of allegations against Porter the day before, on Tuesday, Feb. 6.
Kelly said Porter denied the allegations, which the chief of staff initially believed to be about "some level of emotional abuse" in relation to a "messy divorce."
The allegations, however, were also of physical abuse — and eventually pictures were published to support claims from Porter's two ex-wives.
Source: nbcnews
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