White House spokesman Raj Shah says administration 'could have done better dealing with' Rob Porter scandal

(Image credit: Screenshot/Twitter/ABCPolitics)

published 8 February 2018

On Thursday, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah began the daily press briefing by addressing the departure of former White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter. In the last two days, The Daily Mail and The Intercept published stories alleging that Porter physically abused his two ex-wives.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly reportedly learned about the allegations months ago when Porter applied for a security clearance. But on Wednesday, Kelly and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders both issued statements defending Porter's character, even after he submitted his resignation.

CNN's Jim Acosta asked Shah whether Kelly had any "regrets" about the way Porter's departure was handled. Shah called the allegations that surfaced against Porter "deeply troubling" and "shocking" and said "we all could have done better over … the last few days in dealing with the situation." However, Shah insisted that "the initial reports were not reflective of the [Porter] we had come to know."

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Kelly O'Meara Morales is a staff writer at The Week. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Middle Eastern history and nonfiction writing amongst other esoteric subjects. When not compulsively checking Twitter, he writes and records music, subsists on tacos, and watches basketball.

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