{"id":58393,"date":"2018-02-09T04:50:34","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T04:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=58393"},"modified":"2018-02-09T04:50:34","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T04:50:34","slug":"unwelcome-attention-for-john-kelly-the-man-enlisted-to-bring-calm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/unwelcome-attention-for-john-kelly-the-man-enlisted-to-bring-calm.html","title":{"rendered":"Unwelcome Attention for John Kelly, the Man Enlisted to Bring Calm"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unwelcome Attention for John Kelly, the Man Enlisted to Bring Calm<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Among the many people agitated this week over John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, was President Trump. And among the people the president called to express dissatisfaction, according to those close to him, was none other than Reince Priebus, the previous chief of staff, who also irritated Mr. Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea that the president would confide grievances over Mr. Kelly with the person he pushed out to hire Mr. Kelly is yet another indication of how upside-down Mr. Trump\u2019s world can be. In the West Wing, various characters fall in and out of favor with such rapidity that it is never entirely clear who has the president\u2019s ear.<\/span><\/p>\n

For now, it is Mr. Kelly who is in trouble. The president has little tolerance for aides who attract negative media attention that spills onto him, and in recent days Mr. Kelly has drawn a string of unwelcome headlines. He roiled negotiations over immigration legislation by declaring that some immigrants were \u201ctoo lazy\u201d to apply for legal status. And he initially defended a deputy accused by two ex-wives of physically abusing them.<\/span><\/p>\n

All of which has again fired up the will-he-last speculation that has erupted periodically in the six months Mr. Kelly has been in office. Mr. Trump has recently asked advisers what they think of Mick Mulvaney, who currently holds twin posts as director of the White House budget office and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as a possible chief of staff, according to two people briefed on the discussions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, predicting Mr. Trump\u2019s actions and sorting out who is up and down in his orbit is always fraught. Mr. Priebus, for instance, denied Thursday night that Mr. Trump had discussed Mr. Kelly with him even though several other Trump advisers insisted that he did.<\/span><\/p>\n

Either way, it has been a tough week for Mr. Kelly, to say the least.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYa think?\u201d said the former defense secretary Leon E. Panetta, a onetime boss to Mr. Kelly, who retired as a four-star Marine general. \u201cI worry about John. Even he has admitted it\u2019s probably the toughest job he\u2019s ever had. And I really do think sometimes, particularly with this president, you\u2019re fighting on so many fronts it\u2019s tough not to have that job wear on you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But Mr. Kelly\u2019s long service to his country as a Marine did not necessarily prepare him for the job of White House chief of staff, added Mr. Panetta, who had that post himself under President Bill Clinton. \u201cIt comes to that political judgment,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to have your antenna up. You\u2019ve got to be able to anticipate where the hot spots are.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This week was not the first time that Mr. Kelly did not seem to foresee hot spots. When he took the White House job last summer, he was seen by many as a mature figure who could impose order on a chaotic building. By most accounts, he has indeed created a more organized operation. But he has also generated repeated furors with words and deeds.<\/span><\/p>\n

He engaged in a heated back-and-forth with an African-American Democratic congresswoman, distorting statements she had made at a ceremony they both attended. He opined that the Civil War resulted from \u201cthe lack of an ability to compromise.\u201d He said that Mr. Trump had not been \u201cfully informed\u201d about border issues as a candidate and had since \u201cevolved,\u201d drawing a public retort from the president.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Kelly generated further heat this week when he dismissed many of the more than one million immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children but who did not apply for the protection of an Obama-era program that Mr. Trump ordered ended next month. Some of them \u201cwere the people that some would say were too afraid to sign up, others would say were too lazy to get off their asses, but they didn\u2019t sign up,\u201d he told reporters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Kelly at first came to the defense of Rob Porter, the White House staff secretary, who resigned in the face of allegations of spousal abuse. \u201cRob Porter is a man of true integrity and honor, and I can\u2019t say enough good things about him,\u201d Mr. Kelly said. \u201cHe is a friend, a confidant and a trusted professional.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As outrage grew over a photograph showing an ex-wife of Mr. Porter with a black eye, Mr. Kelly issued a new statement. \u201cI was shocked by the new allegations released today against Rob Porter,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no place for domestic violence in our society.\u201d But he added: \u201cI stand by my previous comments of the Rob Porter that I have come to know since becoming chief of staff and believe every individual deserves the right to defend their reputation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Porter\u2019s case raised questions about what Mr. Kelly knew and when. The White House was informed as far back as August that Mr. Porter\u2019s security clearance was being held up because of domestic allegations. Mr. Kelly has known about the allegations at least since last fall, according to officials who asked not to be named.<\/span><\/p>\n

Raj Shah, a White House spokesman, said on Thursday that Mr. Kelly was not \u201cfully aware\u201d of the details until this week. Mr. Shah also insisted that Mr. Trump remained behind Mr. Kelly. \u201cThe president has confidence in his chief of staff,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

One official insisted that there was minimal knowledge in the White House about Mr. Porter\u2019s troubles. The official said that Mr. Kelly felt misled by Mr. Porter\u2019s account of what had happened. A friend of Mr. Kelly\u2019s said he had learned the details of Mr. Porter\u2019s situation only an hour before suggesting he resign.<\/span><\/p>\n

But White House officials said privately that the president was frustrated with both Mr. Kelly and the White House communications director, Hope Hicks, who in recent weeks has been dating Mr. Porter. Ms. Hicks was one of those rallying the White House to Mr. Porter\u2019s defense when the allegations first surfaced in The Daily Mail.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two people close to the situation said Mr. Kelly had strongly urged Mr. Porter to remain in his job. But a third person denied that, saying that Mr. Kelly had suggested to Mr. Porter on Tuesday night that he should resign. All three agreed that Mr. Kelly never demanded the resignation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Kelly seemed determined to smooth concerns among staff members who were bewildered by the initial reaction to the allegations against Mr. Porter.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a memo to the staff on Thursday night, Mr. Kelly wrote, \u201cWhile we are all processing the shocking and troubling allegations made against a former White House staffer, I want you to know that we all take matters of domestic violence very seriously. Domestic violence is abhorrent and has no place in our society.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Friends and associates noted that with Mr. Kelly\u2019s lack of experience in Washington politics, he may not have been attuned at first to how the domestic abuse allegations against Mr. Porter would be perceived.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Porter was also a favorite of Mr. Kelly\u2019s and viewed as one of the most competent members of an often dysfunctional White House team. Some friends expressed concern that Mr. Kelly had changed with his association with Mr. Trump and grown too insulated in the White House bubble.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Kelly has previously played down accusations against someone he believed served a greater goal. He appeared as a character witness in a 2016 court-martial of a Marine colonel accused of sexually harassing two female subordinates. Mr. Kelly praised the colonel as a \u201csuperb Marine officer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Kelly has spent much of his six months trying to clear out the White House of staff members he viewed as problematic, and colleagues have credited him with reducing internal feuding as a result. But even those efforts have caused him trouble.<\/span><\/p>\n

He pushed out Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former reality show star who had been given a White House post, for what one White House official called misuse of government cars. In an interview on \u201cCelebrity Big Brother\u201d on CBS that aired on Thursday, Ms. Manigault Newman exacted some payback by describing a chilling White House. \u201cI was haunted by tweets every single day, like what is he going to tweet,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

She added that she tried to intervene but was blocked. Now that she is gone, she said, \u201cI\u2019d like to say it\u2019s not my problem, but I can\u2019t say that because, like, it\u2019s bad.\u201d Will everything be O.K., she was asked. \u201cNo, it\u2019s going to not be O.K.,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Shah dismissed her comments. \u201cOmarosa was fired three times on \u2018The Apprentice,\u2019 and this is the fourth time we let her go,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

But most attention on Thursday focused on Mr. Kelly and his handling of the charges against Mr. Porter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have lost all confidence in him as chief of staff,\u201d Evan Siegfried, a Republican strategist, said on MSNBC. \u201cHe\u2019s becoming a distraction. He says things that are absolutely outrageous, and then he does things in the case of Rob Porter that are morally despicable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Representative Nydia Velazquez, Democrat of New York, wrote on Twitter that the Porter case was \u201cpart of a culture of misogyny at the #WhiteHouse.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Republicans were not so quick to throw Mr. Kelly overboard, even as they questioned his judgment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGeneral Kelly has done an extraordinary job as chief of staff to President Trump,\u201d Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, said on CNN. \u201cI think he\u2019s a good man. And sometimes good people make bad decisions. It doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re bad people. It means they\u2019re human.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:- https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/02\/08\/us\/politics\/kelly-trump.html<\/span><\/p>\n

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