Trump appears to issue new defense of aide accused of domestic abuse
Following resignation of Rob Porter, who was accused of physical abuse by two ex-wives, Trump tweets: ‘Lives are being shattered by a mere allegation’
Donald Trump on Saturday appeared to offer a new defense of a former White House aide who was forced to resign after two ex-wives accused him of domestic abuse.
In a statement on Twitter, Trump said: “People’s lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused - life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?”
Porter, a key White House aide, left the administration on Wednesday after two ex-wives accused him of physical abuse. The allegations, first reported by the Daily Mail, included a photo of Porter’s first wife with a black eye that she said her ex-husband had given her.
The White House has faced criticism over its response to the allegations against Porter, including an initial defense of the White House aide as a “man of integrity” from the chief of staff, John Kelly. There have also been questions raised about when top White House staffers learned of the allegations which had blocked Porter from receiving a permanent security clearance.
Porter has dismissed the allegations against him as “outrageous” and “simply false”.
Trump previously defended Porter to reporters on Friday, saying: “We wish him well, he worked very hard. We found out about it recently and I was surprised by it, but we certainly wish him well and it’s a tough time for him.
“He did a very good job when he was in the White House. And we hope he has a wonderful career and he will have a great career ahead of him. But it was very sad when we heard about it and certainly he’s also very sad now.”
He then added a defense of Porter: “He also, as you probably know, says he’s innocent and I think you have to remember that. He said very strongly yesterday that he’s innocent so you have to talk to him about that, but we absolutely wish him well, he did a very good job when he was at the White House.”
A second White House aide, speechwriter David Sorensen, was on Friday forced to resign amid similar accusations, which he denied.
The Porter controversy has intensified pressure on White House chief of staff John Kelly over his strong initial defence of the official.
Trump has been grumbling about Kelly’s performance and weighing up possible replacements, according to media reports. The New York Times suggested that Kelly told staff on Friday he was willing to resign over his mishandling of the domestic violence allegations that led to Porter’s resignation, and that simultaneously Trump was now considering Mick Mulvaney, currently White House budget director and head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as a possible successor.
Trump has long been skeptical of believing allegations by women claiming abuse by men. He endorsed the Alabama Republican Roy Moore for Senate in 2017 despite credible statements that the Republican hopeful sexually assaulted underage girls, noting that Moore “denies it”.
Trump also has pushed back on at least 19 allegations of sexual misconduct against him by saying that the accusers are all liars. The White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders affirmed this was the official position of the administration in October 2017.
However, Trump has been more comfortable making allegations about others. He led the charge against the Central Park Five, five African American youths wrongly convicted of rape, running advertisements implying they should be executed.
He has still maintained, in spite of DNA evidence to the contrary, that the five are guilty.
He also led cheers during his presidential campaign of “lock her up” that insisted his rival Hillary Clinton should be imprisoned and long falsely claimed that Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
