Kelly the lying General. The men he once commanded must be ashamed. Photo: Flickr
[Speaking Truth To Power]
White House Chief of Staff General John Kelly reportedly offered to resign amid allegations he did nothing after finding out White House staff secretary Rob Portman was accused by two ex-wives of domestic violence.
Reportedly he may have known from the FBI about the assaults as early as August or at least by November.
Why should we be surprised this White House, with Donald Trump running it—a man also accused of domestic and sexual abuse—would protect wife beaters? These folks even supported apparent pedophile Alabama Judge Roy Moore.
Still, Kelly wasn’t elected by anyone and must resign.
On Friday, news emerged that Gen. Kelly offered to quit due to the continuing fallout of this week’s scandal over the coverup for alleged domestic abuser Rob Portman, a White House staff secretary. Another staffer, speechwriter David Sorenson, has also resigned because of allegations he was physically abusive to his ex-wife.
Kelly has denied he offered to resign. But given the fact that we know General Kelly, just like his boss, is a bald-faced liar, why should we believe anything he says?
Recent news reports have highlighted abuse allegations by ex-wives of Mr. Portman and Mr. Sorenson. Both of Portman’s ex-wives, Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby, have accused him of domestic abuse. Sorenson’s ex-wife, Jessica Corbet, said their marriage was “violent and emotionally abusive.”
Both General Kelly and Trump initially stood by Portman.
“Rob Porter is a man of true integrity and honor, and I can’t say enough good things about him,” Kelly said. “He is a friend, a confidante and a trusted professional. I am proud to serve alongside him.”
Trump said of Portman’s departure “We hope he has a wonderful career… But it was very sad when we heard about it… Now, he also, as you probably know, he says he’s innocent.” Remember when Trump talked about the “innocence” of Judge Roy Moore—an apparent pedophile who allegedly targeted underage girls in Alabama?
Should we be surprised that Trump, who has been accused by at least 17 women of sexual misconduct and assault, would respond in this way, where he never acknowledged Portman’s ex-wives?
Trump himself was allegedly accused of physical abuse—and rape—by his former wife Ivana. Trump once called his billionaire convicted “high risk” sex offender friend, Jeffrey Epstein, a “terrific guy.”
In Portman’s case, ex-wife Holderness, 37, has accused him of repeated verbal and physical violence—including punching and choking her—during their five-year marriage. It was apparently a photo Holderness released to the media that forced this White House to finally act—although, the FBI had alerted this White House months ago to reportedly credible evidence that Mr. Portman was a domestic abuser.
Ms. Willoughby, another ex-wife, has also accused Portman of verbal and physical abuse, such as dragging her naked from the shower. She also accused Portman of referring to her as a “fucking bitch,” while on their honeymoon. In 2010, Portman allegedly violated their separation agreement and Willoughby then filed for a protective order against him.
Porter has denied both women’s allegations. He said he has been “transparent and truthful about these vile claims.” He purports to be the victim of “a coordinated smear campaign.” But in a White House filled with an assortment of racists and liars, why should we believe Portman or any of the other scoundrels—including General Kelly? Remember Judge Moore also said he was the victim of a smeer?
When the good general was being touted to become the new White House chief of staff we were told Kelly would be the godsend “adult in the room,” who would usher in discipline and integrity to this shamefully scandalous White House. Instead, what we see is that “birds of a feather” really do “flock together.” Kelly has exposed himself as being a man very much like his boss: a lying, probably racist (the civil war was due to a “failure to compromise”), protector of abusers of women.
Last October, Gen. Kelly said this: “When I was a kid growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country. Women were sacred and looked upon with great honor. That’s obviously not the case anymore, as we see from recent cases.”
Ironically, the hypocrisy of Gen. Kelly here is: he made this comment while he was lying and defaming the good name of Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, in the fallout related to Trump’s insensitive phone call to the Gold Star Family of Sgt. La David Johnson. General Kelly’s accusation against Congresswoman Wilson, that she tried to selfishly take credit during the dedication ceremonies at Miami-Dade’s FBI office, were proven to be false when video of the event was revealed. Yet, General Kelly refused to apologize to this African-American Congresswoman who he called an “empty barrel.”
Gen. Kelly showed himself as being a lying dishonorable man when he refused to apologize to Rep. Wilson and his recent conduct has been just as reprehensible. Last week, Gen. Kelly made a racist statement when he said some immigrants “were too lazy to get off their asses” to apply for DACA. Here we see the “lazy” stereotype—often used to demonize Black people—being used to justify racism against immigrant Latinos.
Gen. Kelly is now, basically, pretending he didn’t have all the facts regarding Mr. Portman’s alleged abuse of his former wives, until earlier this week. Even assuming this is true, the question for Gen. Kelly would be: why didn’t it setoff red flags when he found out Mr. Portman wasn’t given a full security clearance?
Portman has been working for 14 months without one. Is Kelly really telling us he didn’t see the need to immediately investigate this? Why is he chief of staff?
From the beginning, many of us knew this administration was rooted in racism and sexism. Trump’s main message in winning the White House was one drenched in incendiary racism and nasty nativism. He launched his contemptible campaign championing the racist Birther lie, falsely claiming President Barack Obama wasn’t born in America.
Where there is racism, isn’t sexism always just behind? Besides Portman and Sorenson, other White House officials, former officials and campaign aids, and cabinet nominees, have been accused of domestic abuse including: Steve Bannon, Corey Lewandowski and Andrew Puzder.
Sadly, one of the main reasons we have a White House full of bigots and wife-beaters is because: 53 percent of White women voters decided to elect a repugnant racist, like Donald Trump. Imagine, most White women voters did this even after seeing Trump bragging on the Access Hollywood tape about grabbing women “by the pussy.” Weirdly, female White America decided Trump was a more viable option that electing Hillary Clinton as the first female president. Yes, Clinton had serious baggage; but Donald Trump?
This means White women in the Me-Too Movement should be asking this question: why did so many of their female family members and friends vote for Trump?
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and the 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, “On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. During one year, this equates to more than 10 million women and men.” These sources found “1 in 7 women and 1 in 18 men have been stalked by an intimate partner during their lifetime to the point in which they felt very fearful or believed that they or someone close to them would be harmed or killed.”
The National Domestic Hotline found that “On average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States — more than 12 million women and men over the course of a year.” And that “Nearly 3 in 10 women (29%) and 1 in 10 men (10%) in the US have experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by a partner and report a related impact on their functioning.”
It goes without saying that civilized people should not condone domestic abuse. Political leaders should be speaking out forcefully against this sort of unacceptable behavior.
But norhing good can be expected from a White House filled with racists and domestic abusers.
