Trump defends top White House staffer accused of serial wife-beating: “We wish him well, it’s obviously a tough time for him.”
@CNNPolitics pic.twitter.com/LgHTQaJfdg— John Aravosis (@aravosis) February 9, 2018
Donald Trump, who ran as the “law and order” candidate, who doesn’t want police officers to be “too nice” to suspects when loading them into police cars—because the kind of person he imagines on the receiving end of that not nice treatment can’t possibly be anything like him or his friends and allies—had nothing to offer but well wishes to a staffer who resigned over domestic abuse allegations. Suddenly, because the man denied it, it’s OK to show sympathy to suspects of a crime.
Of course, no one is surprised by this. Trump himself faces multiple accusations of various horrible actions against women, and it never stopped him from getting anywhere, including the White House. In that context, all the excuses from his staff about the abuse allegations against Rob Porter make sense—how could they possibly strongly condemn an accused domestic abuser when they work for one? It would be way too easy for the media to ask what the difference is and impossible for them to answer honestly: There isn’t one, and Trump should’ve been soundly condemned by the entire country before he got anywhere near the highest office in the land.
It’s awful to watch this all unfold. Trump calls the situation sad, but he clarifies that it’s a tough time for Porter. He expresses no sympathy for the women involved, despite the widely publicized photograph of the black eye one of them sustained. Trump couldn’t be any clearer about his beliefs if the entire military parade he’s begging for were just him marching through Washington D.C. with a banner proclaiming that he doesn’t care about women—at best. He also said that he hopes Porter “has a wonderful career and he will have a great career ahead of him.”
And the worst part is that he’s probably right.
(image: screengrab)
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