with porter and communications director hope hicks. she drafted a statement declaring kelly s support for porter. the latest from jim acosta at the white house. reporter: christine and dave, the white house is scrambling to deal with the scandal involving the aide rob porter who resigned from his position. he stepped down after his two ex-wives accused him of abuse. porter said these allegations are simply false. i took the photos nearly 15 years ago. the reality behind them is nowhere close to what is described. despite the allegation, the white house released glowing statements of porter from chief of staff john kelly and others. an official told cnn those statements were written in response to the first story. one of the ex-wives of porter featuring a black eye. sarah sanders told reporters that the president had confidence in porter.
scrambling to deal with the top aide scandal. rob porter stepped down after two ex-wives accused him of abuse. he said i took the photos given to the media 15 years ago. the reality behind them is nowhere close to what is described. despite the allegation, the white house released the glowing statements about porter from john kelly and others. a senior white house official told cnn the statements were written in response to the first story that broke in the matter. one of the ex-wives of porter was shown in a picture with a black eye. the president had confidence in porter according to sarah sanders. he has been effective in his role as staff secretary. the president has full confidence in his abilities. reporter: cnn learned one year in the trump administration porter never obtained a permanent security clearance to
and he is measured and he is certainly someone that i would trust in that professional position and in his personal life he is also abusive and angry. an official said porter misled west wing staff and kelly by accusing his ex-wives trying to smear him. kelly was shocked by the new allegatio allegations. he also believes every individual deserves the right to defend their reputation. politico reports an ex-girlfriend of porter s contacted the white house counsel. she was concerned about a romantic relationship between porter and the white house communications director hope hicks. she helped draft an initial statement from john kelly declaring support for porter. we have the latest from jim acosta. reporter: the white house is
work here and last fall it was widely known porter was facing trouble with the clearance and there were allegations from his ex-wives about abuse. christine and dave. jim acosta at the white house. thank you. joining us here is julian zelizer. good morning. good morning. general kelly is a highly decorated and respected four-star general. at one point was thought to be the adult in the room and disciplined. he has had a bad week by trumpian standards considering the knock on dreamers earlier. now this. two statements that came out yesterday. it was regarding the rob porter of true integrity and honor. cnn s reporting suggests that john kelly knew about the allegations. statement two says i was shocked by the allegations released today against porter.
i can tell you that rob has been effective in his role as staff secretary and the president and chief of staff have full confidence in his ability. reporter: cnn has learned one year into the trump administration and porter never obtained a permanent security clearance to work here and last fall it was widely known porter was facing trouble getting that clearance and there were allegations about abuse from his ex-wives. christine and dave. thank you, jim. joining us this morning is julian zelitzer. what is your take on john kelly in the white house given this rob porter drama? he was supposed to be the guy who was the grown up in the room. this is just the latest, sort of, potentially misjudgment on his behalf. i think john kelly has been exploited for a long time. we have had a number of controversi