Or anyone for that matter. White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter, Chief of Staff John Kelly’s Second-in-Command, punched his first wife in the face, choked her, and verbally abused and assaulted her on a pretty regular basis. His second wife he also verbally abused and assaulted constantly and once, because he wasn’t finished yet, roughly pulled her out of a shower naked so he could continue.
Yeah, that’s my idea of a dream roommate.
But actually, that’s not the really bad part. The bad part is that despite the fact he was denied permanent Security Clearance because of these actions (he’s vulnerable to blackmail at the least) he has been taking part in Highly Classified meetings and had virtually unlimited access to Top Secret documents (does this remind you of Jared Kushner? It should.).
And everyone in the White House knew about it.
Chief of Staff John Kelly certainly knew about it, he hired the guy. Orrin Hatch knew about it, Rob Porter came from his Senatorial staff and he once opined he wished he could find more Rob Porters because he’d hire them all.
John Kelly’s intial reaction was to issue a statement supportive of Rob Portman (drafted by Hope Hicks, White House Communications Director and Porter’s current girlfriend). Kelly said Porter was, “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.” More than that, Kelly urged Porter to stay and fight the “allegations” which are actually testimony from his former wives in their divorce proceedings. Yeah, mean spiteful witches- it was under oath and penalty of perjury.
But wait, there’s more
We shift our attention from the departed Rob Porter and focus on his boss, John Kelly, the Fightin’ Irishman. He’s had quite a few umm… “interesting” weeks.
He blew up the compromise on DACA causing the Trump Government Shutdown and then ran his mouth about how those who didn’t sign up out of completely justifiable paranoia or lack of financing (it costs $500 to apply) were instead “too lazy to get off their asses.” Is Kelly a racist? South Boston born and raised.
The reason John Kelly was and is so supportive of Rob Porter is that Kelly viewed him as a key ally in his bid to diminish the influence of Ivanka. This is why Ivanka is shopping for Kelly replacements. Watch your rear General, even if you were anything but a bigoted misogynous pig of dubious competence you aren’t the daughter he wants to bang.
Actually Kelly’s tenure has not been one of placid moderation however much you despise Scaramucci. The Captured Corporatist Media has had a vested interest in portraying him as a Centrist Technocrat because they are desperate to “Normalize” Trump. Trump is normal, he’s a normal Republican. His agenda (such as it is outside of desperate pleas for approval because his Daddy ignored him and thought he was worthless and his Mommy was a vain primping Golddigger) is simply the Republican Reaganite wish list. Kill Obamacare and the rest of the Social Safety Net? Huge Tax Cuts Cuts Cuts for the wealthiest .01% on the backs of the rest of us?
That’s as Mainstream Republicanism as it gets.
To drive the point about the Captured Corporatist Media home consider the case of Paul Ryan and the disingenuous portrayal of him as a serious, wonky, issue oriented, “reasonable” Republican. Gutting everything except Graft (that includes the Military) and transferring wealth upwards are his issues. He’s been dreaming about them since his College Kegger days.
Does not physically grabbing women’s genitals or otherwise assaulting them and bragging about it make him serious, wonky, issue oriented, and “reasonable”? Paul Krugman would beg to differ.
If you are treating Donald Trump as an especially abhorrent aberration you are exactly wrong. He is entirely normal, a product of his Party.