February 10, 2018
The predilection of this administration to promote and protect truly evil men never ceases to amaze. In the last week, two senior administration officials were forced to resign when evidence of their history of spousal abuse came to light. First, The Daily Mail revealed that White House Staff Secretary, Rob Porter, had been accused of battering each of his two ex-wives. This information, uncovered by the FBI a year ago, is the reason Porter did not have a security clearance, despite holding a position that required the highest one.
The cascade of credentials trotted out to cover Porter in a cloak of invisibility that hid his violent abuse of women was truly disgusting. Harvard Law School graduate, Rhodes Scholar, Mormon— these aspects of Porter’s identity were reverently recited as proof that he couldn’t possibly be a serial batterer. If anything, the incantation of these indicia of respectability explain how so many men get away with it.
The initial response of sneering racist Chief of Staff, John Kelly, revealed the full scope of his misogyny. On Tuesday, when the news first came to light, Kelly defended Porter as a man of “true integrity and honor.” Someone should tell Kelly that those words don’t mean what he thinks they mean. By now, we know what happened next. The Daily Mail released a picture of Porter’s first wife with a black eye inflicted by him that made Kelly’s and Orrin Hatch’s defenses ring hollow. Only then did Kelly reluctantly retreat from his glowing praise of Porter (Source: “In A New Statement, Kelly says he was ‘shocked’ by Porter allegations and condemns abuse,” by Andrew Restuccia and Eliana Johnson, Politico.com, 2/7/18).
Then on Friday, White House speechwriter, David Sorenson, submitted his resignation after chilling details of his alleged abuse of his ex-wife were reported by The Washington Post, (Source: “Another White House aide resigns amid domestic abuse claims,” by Elise Viebeck, The Washington Post, 2/9/18). The fact that The White House did not find these allegations disqualifying when they were uncovered in FBI background checks shows that for this administration, abuse of women is a feature, not a bug.
We cannot let our revulsion at a White House that harbors violent criminals blind us to Congress’s continuing refusal to pass legislation to protect the Dreamers. The bipartisan budget deal passed late Thursday night not only did not include any protection for the Dreamers, but Democrats were not even able to extract a promise from Paul Ryan to bring the Dream Act to the floor. This policy failure leaves 690,000 people vulnerable to deportation in less than a month. Although some argue that the Democrats’ political calculation that it was better to pass a budget that increased domestic spending than to risk another shutdown and come away with nothing (Source: “A Government Eclipse,” Pod Save America podcast, 2/8/18), it is hard to escape the feeling that Dreamers were viewed as expendable collateral damage.
Between the actions of Congress and The White House this past week, it is pretty clear to see who those in power deem expendable. We can only hope that the 53% of white women who voted these reprobates in see it too.
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