{"id":347640,"date":"2018-02-10T13:59:34","date_gmt":"2018-02-10T12:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/timesup-for-john-kelly-and-for-toxic-masculinity-in-trumps-white-house-by-will-bunch\/"},"modified":"2018-02-10T13:59:34","modified_gmt":"2018-02-10T12:59:34","slug":"timesup-for-john-kelly-and-for-toxic-masculinity-in-trumps-white-house-by-will-bunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/timesup-for-john-kelly-and-for-toxic-masculinity-in-trumps-white-house-by-will-bunch\/","title":{"rendered":"#TimesUp For John Kelly, And For Toxic Masculinity In Trump’s White House | By Will Bunch"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

Just 14 months ago, both of the women who\u2019d once been married to Rob Porter got horrifying Facebook messages and texts from a third woman who said she was now dating Porter \u2014 a top GOP Capitol Hill aide on a path toward the Trump White House \u2014 and wanted to talk to them about \u201crepeated abuse\u201d in their relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI work in politics, and despite Rob\u2019s repeated abuse, some of which I think many know about,<\/em> he continues to rise<\/em><\/strong> and I\u2019m afraid to go against him,\u201d the woman wrote in a December 2016 message to Porter\u2019s first wife, Colbie Holderness, viewed and reported on Wednesday by CNN<\/a> (emphasis mine).\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m sorry to bother you. I wanted to reach out and hear your story if you are willing to share \u2014 as well as how you broke out of it with him and mostly, how you recovered.\u201d<\/p>\n

“They knew, and when journalists from the Daily Mail<\/a> and then other news orgs<\/a> began calling, their first response was practically Nixonian in their desire to stonewall, lie, cover up, and pray that the story would somehow go away.”<\/p>\n

The message was hardly a surprise to either woman. Porter\u2019s second ex-wife, Jennifer Willoughby, has since told reporters that he began calling her a \u201c(bleep)ing bitch\u201d on their honeymoon, mainly because she didn\u2019t have sex with him often enough, and when they were separated in 2010 she went to court and obtained a protective order after Porter put his hand through a glass door pane looking for her. Holderness told a similar story, punctuated by an incident in 2005 on a vacation in Florence, Italy, when Porter allegedly struck her in the face and gave her a black eye \u2014 which she then made him photograph.<\/p>\n

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Senior White House aide Rob Porter physically assaulted two ex-wives, they tell @theintercept<\/a>. Full story to come in the morning. <\/p>\n

His first wife, Colbie Holderness, provided these photos from a vacation they took together in Florence, Italy: pic.twitter.com\/tl3TbyGA8Y<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) February 7, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s (probably) true that the Trump White House didn\u2019t have these photographs when they hired Porter \u2014 who\u2019d been chief of staff to Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, a conservative icon \u2014 for the critical behind-the-scenes job of staff secretary to the president, working closely with chief of staff John Kelly to control the flow of important people and paperwork into the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

But they knew.<\/p>\n

They knew that the FBI had interviewed Porter\u2019s ex-wives while conducting their background check and was refusing to grant him a security clearance \u2014 something that you\u2019d think would be essential for an aide shuttling sensitive and sometimes top-secret paperwork onto the commander in chief\u2019s desk. And, according to reports quoting unnamed administration officials, they almost certainly knew more than that \u2014 keeping with Porter\u2019s ex-girlfriend\u2019s warning that many in Washington knew were aware of his abuse, and yet he continued to rise.<\/p>\n

They knew, and when journalists from the Daily Mail<\/a> and then other news orgs<\/a> began calling, their first response was practically Nixonian in their desire to stonewall, lie, cover up, and pray that the story would somehow go away \u2014 anything not to deal with the reality of a serial wife-beater in the corridors of American power.<\/p>\n

In a cruel irony in a presidency that has practically trademarked the phrase \u201ccruel irony,\u201d communications director Hope Hicks \u2014 who is widely reported to be Porter\u2019s current girlfriend \u2014 was enlisted to draft over-the-top statements of support. None was more tone-deaf than the initial reaction from Kelly, who was once falsely touted by Beltway access journalists as \u201cthe adult\u201d who would save Trump\u2019s presidency. Instead, the retired Marine general sounded more like the brainwashed hero of The Manchurian Candidate.<\/em><\/p>\n

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