When John Kelly was brought on as White House Chief of Staff last summer, many people on both sides of the aisle had high hopes he would restore dignity and a sense of professionalism to the West Wing. The Washington Post declared his hire was “designed to bring order and military precision to a West Wing beset for six straight months by chaos, infighting and few tangible accomplishments.” Fast forward six months and Kelly is no longer the person responsible for calming the chaos; instead, he appears to be feeding it, leading some to speculate his dismissal is imminent. Following a string of major gaffes, NBC News is reporting, “From calls for him to step down to accusations that he’s disconnected, the barbs are flying at White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.”
The crisis began earlier this week when Kelly, speaking off-the-cuff about immigration, said some immigrants were “too lazy to get off their asses” to sign up for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The remarks prompted immediate outrage.
Dear John Kelly: undocumented immigrants are anything but lazy. They work hard every day with no promise of citizenship or a return on their taxes when they get old. If they were afraid to sign up for DACA, perhaps it’s bc many feared that one day someone like you would run DHS.
— Nope. (@JoyAnnReid) February 6, 2018
Then, Kelly strongly defended Staff Secretary Rob Porter when allegations surfaced that he had abused both of his ex-wives. Here is what Kelly first said about the accusations against Porter:
“Rob Porter is a man of true integrity and honor and I can’t say enough good things about him. He is a friend, a confidante, and a trusted professional. I am proud to serve alongside him.”
Then, these photos surfaced, prompting even greater outrage, which ultimately led Porter to step down:
Senior White House aide Rob Porter physically assaulted two ex-wives, they tell @theintercept. Full story to come in the morning.
His first wife, Colbie Holderness, provided these photos from a vacation they took together in Florence, Italy: pic.twitter.com/tl3TbyGA8Y
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) February 7, 2018
After Porter’s resignation, Kelly released another statement saying:
“I was shocked by the new allegations released today against Rob Porter. There is no place for domestic violence in our society.”
Note that nothing about the allegations changed between the first and second statement. The only change was that public outrage started to grow.
Now there are questions about how long Kelly knew about Porter’s past. The Intercept, which broke several critical elements of the story reports during a routine background check on Porter, the FBI spoke with both of his ex-wives and learned of the abuse. The FBI reportedly passed this information onto the White House and Porter was denied top security clearance as a result. “Senior aides to President Donald Trump knew for months,” CNN reports. It’s hard to believe Kelly wasn’t in the loop on this, still harder to believe he knew of the abuse allegations and decided to hire Porter anyway.
White House officials knew about the domestic abuse allegations levied against top White House staffer Rob Porter and scrambled to protect him, multiple sources tell CNN https://t.co/NkeGnmrhRJ pic.twitter.com/sNq4LMWwfs
— CNN (@CNN) February 7, 2018
While the double whammy of the immigration comments and Porter scandal have tarnished Kelly’s image, it’s important to remember that there were chinks in his armor before this week. In particular, some of his comments have been insensitive and arguably racist. Back in October, for example, Kelly was criticized for saying “Robert E. Lee was an honorable man” and “the lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War.” And who can forget the time Kelly lashed out at Congresswoman Frederica Wilson calling her an empty barrel. At the time Salon said, “Kelly’s attack on Wilson was not just false but redolent of racism and sexism.”
Now it seems it’s only a matter of time before Kelly joins a long list of officials who have left or been pushed out of the Trump administration. There’s even a #KellyResign hashtag making the rounds.
Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly & the White House knew for months about Rob Porter’s domestic abuse. They still fought for him. They defended him at a constant. Then pictures came out. And he resigned. It’s now time for John Kelly to resign for covering it up. #KellyResign
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) February 8, 2018
If Kelly is pushed out, it will mark an ignoble end to a brief stint at the pinnacle of White House power. If Kelly was supposed to be the adult in the room, he didn’t live up to expectations.