February 9, 2018

Trump on Aide Accused of Domestic Abuse: “We Hope That He Has a Wonderful Career”

“He says he’s innocent, and I think you have to remember that.”

President Donald Trump on Friday offered his best wishes to Rob Porter, the top White House aide who resigned Wednesday after two of his ex-wives came forward with domestic abuse allegations. The president also emphasized that Porter has denied the accusations.

“We wish him well, he worked very hard,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I found out about it recently and I was surprised by it. But we certainly wish him well. It’s an obviously tough time for him. He did a very good job while he was in the White House, and we hope that he has a wonderful career.”

“Now he also, as you probably know, he says that he’s innocent. I think you have to remember that,” Trump added. “He said very strongly yesterday that’s he’s innocent.”

Trump’s comments marked the first time the president has publicly addressed the growing scandal, which emerged this week after news outlets reported on the abuse allegations and published photos of one of his former wives with a black eye. White House chief of staff John Kelly has been under intense fire for reportedly knowing about the allegations for months.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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