kelly. i don t think there s anything wrong with a general being chief of staff. i am troubled by the way he has done the job in a number of key areas. and i don t know all the details and all the timelines on rob porter, but it certainly sounds like they did not take the allegations as seriously as they should. and by the way, all allegations are not created equal. i don t disagree with the president that if someone just throws out an allegation you shouldn t automatically assume it s true. in the case of rob porter, these are not mere allegation, these are multiple women, you had a judge issuing a restraining order in one case, thought it was credible enough do that. certainly had you the photographs. you have a ton of testimony. and this is we are not in court here. we are not trying to put him in jail, so beyond a reasonable doubt is not the standard. the standard is basically what would a reasonable person conclude? and looking at the evidence, you could certainly conclude that
that s right. but what the chief staff john kelly is telling people and we re told this through this member of congress who s talked to him directly is that he did immediately take action. he says he confronted rob porter, told him had he to resign, and then he told president trump of the decision. and so that s why we ve seen him saying that he aktd withcted wi minutes. we re also told when the chief of staff learned of the fact that rob was perhaps wanting to stay, he settled the matter right away. the general said he needed to leave the white house immediately, no further questions or debate. and alex, last thing, the quote from that member of congress, to your question about president trump, the member of congress said president trump didn t know this until the news broke and he shouldn t have been expected to know. president s don t get involved in background checks. okay. mike allen, it s always good to have with you these developing stories.
chief of staff by some of the senior officials who are on the various sunday shows today and to also sort of protect the president based on that tweet where he talked more about those accused and their rights and has still said nothing about the victims of domestic violence. the president tweet often we know he often tweets things that certainly agitate his critics and cause a lot of questions. he has not taken the hint that has been put out publicly to address the issue of domestic violence and perhaps we should not expect that given his track record of making comments like this siding more with the accusers. but the officials today were trying to sort of take us inside the white house on the decision-making process as it pertained to rob porter, the staff secretary who is now gone. the story has been from talking both with sources here as well as those who appear publicly on television, that porter had not been fully truthful with those around him about the extent of the allegations
welcome back, everyone. i m alex witt here at msnbc world headquarters. a new development in the resignation of former white house secretary rob porter. ax yos is reporting that senior white house officials told him to stay and fight. he also says he never misrepresented anything to chief of staff john kelly. joining me now chief white house correspondent for the times, peter baker. big welcome to you, peter. i know that you ve been doing your own reporting on this. how does this axios report square request w anything that you ve heard. they told him when the allegations came up that he should stay and fight and only changed his mind after he learned more about the nature of the allegations and the photograph that obviously became such a powerful piece of
someone we know and work with, rob porter, came to the chief of staff and said look, i m being accused of these things. for them to fif that person the benefit of the doubt is a normal reaction. standing behind president trump s initial defense of rob porter who resigned following allegations of domestic abuse. welcome to you, ladies. i want to remind our viewers who the president s reaction was to parter s rez cig nation. here is what he had to say. zb he says he is innocent. i think you have to remember that. we absolutely wish him well. then yesterday he tweeted in part peoples lives are being shattered by a mere allegation. is there no such thing any longer as due process?