he doesn't know rob porter in that way. general kelly didn't know rob porter in that way. they knew him in a professional setting where apparently he was exceptional. all of us have known people in their living who can do, be in a professional setting wonderful smart and gre garrigus and wonderful and go home and be a very different person. >> do you need to go out of your way to then praise them for their action in a professional setting. first of all, he was praising roger ailes for his actions in a professional setting, which were anything but professional. and bill o'reilly as well. so it does seem -- and roy moore as well. because he was actually at the time of the allegations, he was a professional. i think he was, what, the district attorney or assistant district attorney. he does seem to go out of his way -- >> i'm assuming, anderson, here's the thing, i give the president the benefit of the doubt because i trust him. i think he meant it was sad for everyone. >> right -- no, what he said -- i've gone over his statements. what he said was it's sad for people at the

it seems impossible to imagine, i mean, what about this picture of porter's first wife, she says porter did this to her according to "the washington post" probably told people she was somehow hit with the vase. what about the words of porter's second wife, jennifer. >> i told them all of the details of my marriage, including verbal and emotional abuse and including the incident when he pulled me out of the shower. they were also made aware of the protective order that i signed in june of 2010. >> no mention from the president of the united states that domestic abuse is abhorrent that the women are two ex-wives and what they suffered at the hands of rob porter including the fact that one of them had filed a protective order against him. maybe the president should take a cue from the vice president in the olympics. >> there is no tolerance in this white house. no place in america for domestic abuse. >> the problem is that this president, the victims are the attackers. the predators. and the assaulters. take his own words. here he is on senate candidate roy moore after multiple women came

both shared their claims with the fbi during porter's background check during porter's background investigation. moments ago, sarah sanders continued to stand by porter saying the president has full confidence in his abilities and performance. earlier sanders said porter was not pressured to resign. in fact, far from it. >> i think that was a personal decision that rob made and one that he was not pressured to do but one he made on his own. >> porter in a statement called the chargers against him by his two ex-wives false and vile but he did not explain how his wife got black eye or why two ex-wives are accusing him of abusing they will. the reports first appeared in the daily mail and the intercept. let's begin with cnn's report. these are serious allegations. >> these are very serious allegations against a senior aide to president trump. thought to beer flr the trump administration, abruptly resigning after two of his ex-wives accusing him of years of domestic abuse. the first ex-wife married rob porter in 2003. she tells me there was constant emotional and physical abuse and it began almost

it read to me like it was about rob porter. yeah, he has this very, i think, somewhat disturbing trend of if it is a man who he is either friends with or agrees with or agrees with him or is in the same party, bill o'reilly, roger ailes, others, roy moore, he tends to say, well, you know, he denies it. he strongly denies it, even in the face of a number of allegations in all of these cases that more than one allegation of either sexual assault, domestic abuse, physical or mental abuse. but in the circumstances -- i went back and looked at this. in the circumstances when it relates to democrats, which we have recent examples of. al franken was accused of forcibly groping and kissing women, john conyers from michigan of inappropriate conduct toward women, trump is much more willing to sort of say, you know, i'm proud of women for coming forward. he put a statement like that out. so it's the definition of sort of situational ethics. and i think more evidence, frankly, that this president does not view the job of president as to be

the last hours in the white house for ex-staffer rob porter. what he's telling people now about his resignation is different than what's coming from the west wing. how that drama unfolded next. >> the president's tweet yesterday was more generic. >> defending the defender and chief talking about hae meant about due process for those accused of domestic abuse. plus conway weighs in on whether she feared for hope hicks's safety after accusations of abuse by porter. >> gives point by point why the republican memo has a lot of false assertions and also in general just leads the reader into a false direction. >>> what's the hold snup? why the president won't release the new homy and if the public will ever so see it and if so, when? >>> today the white house pushing back on president trump's failure to acknowledge the alleged victims in his tweet yesterday. >> when the president is saying talking about did you process, he's right in this way, we are a country of laws, there's due process, that's absolutely correct. but we as individuals have a duty

president, do you believe rob porter's ex-wives? do you believe rob porter's ex-wives, mr. president? does the president believe the women? >> again, the president takes all of these accusations very seriously. he believes in due process. above everything else, he supports the victims of any type of violence, and certainly would condemn any violence against anyone. >> reporter: but we still haven't heard him say that himself. the cameras were in front of him today, and he didn't say it. >> again, the president dictated to me specifically that comment yesterday, which i read out to you guys. >> so, let's get to cecilia vega, live at the white house again tonight. and cecilia, as we've been reporting since late last week here, rob porter was working with a temporary security clearance. you've been asking why there are so many in the white house, more than a year into this administration, working with temporary clearance, jared kushner among them. and today, the president's own director of national intelligence sounding the alarm about this very issue. >> the access has to be

porter's second ex-wife, told the "daily mail" that porter dragged her wet and naked out of the shower and was verbally abusive. in an account she confirms to nbc news. nbc news has also obtained a 2010 protective order where willby told police during their separation porter ignored her multiple requests to leave her home and at one point punched in the glass on the door. i called the police, afraid he would break in, she said. mounting questions about how porter was given such close access to the president, and the documents that crossed his desk. a former white house official says chief of staff john kelly was aware of the allegations of abuse before the story broke. two sources familiar with the matter tell nbc news it is believed porter was never given full security clearance. although it's not clear why. the administration now on defense. >> i think that was a personal decision that rob made. and one that he was not pressured to do, but one that he made on his own. >> multiple outlets are reporting that porter is dating communications director hope hicks. who plays a role in all p

porter himself. and for reporters. in which porter on background relayed his version of events and fielded questions from the crew. politico also reports the three communication staffers present at that meeting including sarah huckabee sanders did not dispute that white house chief of staff john kelly urged porter to stay after all this has come out, urged porter to stay accord to a person familiar with the exchange. kelly was asked last night if the white house should have handled the porter situation differently. his response and i quote, no, it was all done right. jonathan lemire is from the "associated press" and political analyst. asawin suebsaeng. >> is that the view in the white house, this was all done right. >> that's the view that kelly is trying to put forth. there are many others in the west wing who don't feel that way. this is a moment where john kelly grit p on his position is most tenuous since he took the job. president trump has been calling to inform allies, those folks he calls every night sort of a

first, you said that the president was not aware of the po porter's security clearance, but when was he made aware of the abuse? >> tuesday night after a report issue. >> and secondly, you have said that rob porter was terminated twice in the briefing, is the white house saying he was fired? >> i mean the process by which your employment status ends is termination. >> lastly on that, you said there are things the white house could have done better with respect to this, can you please detail them? what could the white house have done better? >> again, i'm not getting into ticktock detailed specifics. i think a lot of individuals were involved with the white house response to this, and a lot of us could have done better. >> thanks, clarifying about the two questions for you, so rob porter was not fired by the trump administration. >> resigned, and we accepted resignation. >> to follow up, you spoke with the president about these allegations this morning. can you give us a better idea about the concerns president had? this is a gentleman who was in the oval office close to the president

porter's second ex-wife jennifer willoughby told the "daily mail" porter dragged her wet out of a shower and was verbally abusive. an account she confirmed to nbc news. nbc news also obtained a 2010 protective order with willoughby told police during their separation, porter ignored her multiple requests to leave her home and at one point punched on the glass on the door. "i called the police afraid he would break in," she said. tonight, mounting questions about how porter was given such close access to the president and documents that crossed his desk. a former white house official says chief of staff john kelly was aware of the allegations of abuse before the story broke. two sources familiar with the matter tell nbc news it is believed porter was never given full security clearance although it's not clear why. the administration now on defense. >> i think that was a personal decision that rob made. and one that he was not pressured to do but one that he made on his own. >> reporter: the white house is not commenting on porter's security clearance. one other layer to this, porter is re

now today rob porter is a great man. and now we realize he is not a great man in fact one of the least of us because he puts his hand on women in violent ways. the doesn't choose the best. he has had nazis and racists. let's check another box. dmabdsers around him. >> a retired general told our jim acosta told us doesn't recognize john kelly. are we seeing the real john kelly or is this white house changing him. >> i don't think it's either. i think the bottom line is we don't know exactly what he knew about this incident. we know that it clearly flagged by the fbi. i think it's clear that he should not have been in the white house referring to porter. i don't think this has to do with politics either. this is an issue of domestic abuse and violence that we should all not try to score political points on and condemn it for what it is. you do not put your hands on a woman. i don't care about any other political talking points of this that or the other, this individual if this is true -- and from what we've seen with the p

rob porter's ex-wives. there seems to have been no effort by the white house to hear their accounts. they didn't really do anything with the information they got from the fbi and they kept rob porter in place. they didn't only keep him employed, nicolle, they kept empowering him. he came in as the staff secretary, but he's become a really influential figure in the last couple of months. as almost john kelly's right hand. there was some speculation he might even be named and titled the deputy chief of staff, but he certainly functioned that way in helping control the access to the president and helping prepare all the briefing materials that the president saw. they knew there was a problem and didn't do anything about it. and the other problem based on the reporting i've been doing today and one of the reasons the president is so upset is because they didn't actually tell the president about this. he learned about these allegations against porter very late in that time line and he was upset that he had not b

he made a comment on rob porter. he also can have sympathy, r respect, and compassion for the millions of victims of victims of child abuse and drug abuse. if cnn or anyone else wants a serious kergs about them and use our platforms to really take a bite out of these scourges, give me a call, i work first and fore most on the opioid crisis. the budget being released tomorrow is bringing in $6 billion. >> is that enough? >> it is more than we have ever seen it it will bring treatment, law enforcement, education, and prevention. we need to tackle all three at once. we need to get those drugs and keep them out of our country and communities, but we also have to help the people already addicted and in need of medicated assisted treatment, and we have to educate everyone that the tric tri trickiness, that what is in mom and dad's medicine cabinet is l harm you. >> porter's second wife said she is worried about hope hicks, take a listen. >> it worries me for a lot of reasons. first, if i'm being frank with you. if he has n

porter. we, quote, mr. porter told mr. mcgahn in january 2017 that there could be what he described as false allegations against him. in june, the fbi told mr. mcgahn that allegations of schwab had surfaced. in november the bureau informed mr. mcgahn that mr. porter was not likely to get a clearance. but mr. mcgahn requested that the fbi complete its investigation and come back to the white house with a final determination about the allegations. here to talk with us jeremy bash, also happens to be an msnbc national security analyst. in the annals of red flags in the pursuit of security clearance, how bad is this issue as a red flag? and talk a little bit -- we've tried to get into this -- about the clearance required normally in this job, about what the person with the title staff secretary sees and handles and hears. >> let's start there, brian. the staff secretary handles all of the most sensitive correspondence and memoranda that go to the president of the united states. including everything pertaining to national secur

porter denied the allegations. ever since this picture came out, the picture we're showing you right now, last week, showing his first wife with a black eye, the white house has been scrambling to come up with a consistent story about when they learned about these allegations. and the amazing thing is, they still have not been able to do that. cnn has reported that white house counsel don mcgahn knew a year ago that the allegations may come up in the fbi background check and learned more details over the past year. well, yesterday, the white house said it learned of the extent of the allegations just last tuesday, and acted quickly. the background check was ongoing and they hadn't received any papers relating to it. well, today, the fbi director completely contradicted that, and he did so in public, sitting before the senate intelligence committee. >> the fbi submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in march, and then a completed background investigation in late july. that soon thereafter, we rec

porter. at that senior staff meeting this morning, according to "post," the chief of staff told subordinates to convey to other white house aides he cares about domestic violence and moments ago, moments ago, washington "washington post" break the story that a second white house aide has resigned because of allegations of domestic abuse which he denies. late tonight, a breaking report the president is privately questioning the credibility of rob porter's accusers. i'm joined by one of the authors of this report. tell me what you found in your reporting today? >> what my and my colleagues have found is that over the past couple of days, the president of the united states has been privately raising questions to both aides and long-time friends and con if i dans about the credibility of the allegations against mr. porter. he has been repeatedly asking if there are any reasons that people have uncovered as to why these women could be lying about this. so this is a president who is clearly not rea

porter. years of which she said she endured emotional and physical abuse and filed a temporary ordered of protection. porter's first wife colbie holderness also divorced him after years of abuse, including physical violence. holderness has even released pictures of a black eye she says porter gave her. porter calls all of the allegations against him outrageous and simply false. he says the reality behind the pictures is, quote, nowhere close to what is being described, and says, quote, i have been transparent and truthful about these vile claims. holderness told her story to a british newspaper, and both women had previously told their story to the fbi, which was in the process of doing a background check on porter for security clearance. the fbi told senior officials at the white house, including john kelly. multiple sources telling us by last fall, it was widely known, and let me repeat that, widely known among top aides, kelly included, that rob porter was facing trouble getting cleared an

president, any comment on the resignation of rob porter? >> reporter: the president today refusing to answer questions. >> mr. president, when did you learn about the allegations against rob porter? >> reporter: but from his aides, a rare admission of fault. >> i think a 0 lot of individuals were involved with the white house response to this, myself included. i think a lot of us could have done better. >> president not taking quells on this, as we saw there a moment ago. let's go live to cecilia say fwa. you reported senior white house officials did know about the allegations for months, but do we have any idea when president trump found out? >> reporter: no, david. we still do not know for sure. what the white house said today is that the president only learned about these questions over rob porter's security clearance as these domestic violence allegations surfaced this week in the press. the white house says that the president was saddened and surprised. as for these questions about john kelly, the white house still says the president h

allegations now made by porter's two ex-wives. the president today praising porter's work wishing him well, telling reporters, quote, he says he is innocent, and i think you have to remember that. the president adding, it has been a tough time for porter. hope hicks who has been romantically linked to porter was right there in the oval office as the president weighed in today. late today, telling abc news, the chief of staff, john kelly telling president trump his willingness to design over his handling of the scandal. cecilia vega leading us off. >> reporter: with his white house under fire today president trump breaking his silence, praising his former staff secretary rob porter, who resigned amid allegations he abused both of his former wives. >> we certainly wish him well. >> it's a obviously tough time for him. he did a very good job when he was in the white house, and we hope he has a wonderful career, and hopefully he will have a great career ahead of him. but it was very sad when we heard about it, and certainly he's also

he even got direct phone calls from girlfriends of porter. i mean, he had all this information. >> in november, right. >> yes. any other administration, fred, white house counsel, under those terms, would be terminated. but we're in a whole other world here with the trump administration. one thing about mcgahn, because he's been so close with trump not only in the campaign and in the presidency, he is a person of interest in the mueller investigation. it will be wise for him to lawyer up. >> so avery, the fbi had this information. talked to the ex-wives. saw the photographs as richard, you know, is reminding us. a girlfriend reportedly came forward and also said she was a victim of abuse. so when the president tweeted out today that these are mere allegations and that people's lives are being ruined and they should be given due process, what's your response to him from a legal perspective as to whether these allegations are credible, you know, and if they should be given, you know, this sort of attention, the photographs, and if those who are

porter. in 30 seconds in today's white house briefing sarah sanders told at least four lies about the white house's handling of this scandal. we have to put the facts first here. let's slow it down and go through her statement together. ready? >> we learned of the extent of the situation involving rob porter last tuesday evening. >> not true. and, boy, is that phrase the extent doing a lot of work there. here are the facts, okay, everyone. rob porter first told top white house lawyer don mcgahn more than a year ago that his ex wives might give the fbi potentially damaging information about him according to sources who tell cnn porter went on to describe the allegations to don mcgahn and other aides. the ex wives told cnn they talked to the fbi, one providing photos of the alleged abuse early last year. the bureau told the white house last spring according to people familiar with the matter. the white house has known for months that there were serious domestic violence allegations against a to

again, praising his former aide, rob porter, after porter resigned as white house staff secretary once allegations of domestic abuse about him went public. moments ago, former vice president joe biden react ed to those comments in indianapolis. >> what disturbs me the most is that know iing the fellow didn' get clearance because of allegations and proof of sexual abuse a abuse, the rationale apparently was -- and i don't know. apparently was what you see in the press, but he did a good job. he was really good at his job. before i walked on stage, i read a statement from the president that said he wishes him luck. he has so much talent. that's like saying that ax murderer out there, he's a great painter. no. translate this into everyday terms. is there any other crime -- and that's a crime -- where there would be an explanation of the reason why we shouldn't pay attention to the transgression is because they're good at something. >> cnn analyst and politico's national reporter eliana johnson, and political cnn commentator ana navarro. beginning with you, and if we hone in on the preside

porter's first wife, colbie holderness, a photo of her black and blue eye, saying porter punched her in the face more than a decade ago. press secretary sarah sanders today reading a statement from porter. >> i will not further engage publicly with a coordinated smear campaign. >> reporter: porter writing, "these outrageous allegations are simply false. i took the photos and the reality behind them is nowhere close to what is being described. i have been transparent and truthful about these vile claims." porter is romantically involved with white house communications director hope hicks. the pair spotted out on the town recently in this dailymail.com photo. and today the white house messaging, crystal clear. porter was a valued part of the team, and he was not forced out. >> i think that was a personal decision that rob made and one that he was not pressured to do >> reporter: porter's first wife tells the intercept, "he would lay on top of me, shaking me, or rubbing an elbow or knee into me. he graduated to choking me, not ever hard enough to make me pass out or frankly, to leave ma

. >> do you believe rob porter's ex-wives? >> reporter: and the allegations of domestic abuse has raised critical questions about the security clearance process for west wing staffers. at a hearing, christopher wray disclosed what he knew about the background check and said they completed their investigation last summer. >> the fbi submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in march. and then a completed background investigation in late july. soon there after, we received requests for follow-up inquiry and we did the follow-up and provided that information in november and then we administratively closed the file in january. >> that appeared to qulakt top white house officials have said for days, that the background investigation was not finished. >> it was ongoing. he was operating on an interim security clearance. the clearance was never denialed and he resigned. >> today, the aides to the president tried a new message. >> they had not made the final adjudication because the process was still ongoing when he

porter, however, was black mailable. why did they let him stay on? maybe because they were desperate. he was a respected establishment pro. without them it was all omarosa. >> oh, yeah. there are two things that are true, one is that the white house had a lot of trouble because attracting really good workers and high level staffers early on in the first six, nine months in part because there were many people in washington who just thought this administration isn't going to work. i don't want to get the cooties on me, i'm not going in there. there was another thing that was brought on the trump white house by trump himself. there were fabulous people in washington, experienced and accomplished and serious, real patriots. they had opposed trump in 2016. they said -- when he was elected they said, i am available. if you want to go in, i'll go into defense. the white house was very nice to them until they found out that those people had been critical during the 2016 campaign. signed letters from foreign policy people opposing trump or catholics opposing

will he address the rob porter scandal? stay with us. and lasts for up to 12 hours, with zicam extreme congestion relief and zicam intense sinus relief. for colds and allergies, get your better back with zicam nasal sprays. >>> i'm john king in washington. want to take you straight to the white house. president trump meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to talk infrastructure. >> we've really accomplished a lot. we're here today to discuss the urgent need to rebuild and restore america's depleted infrastructure. we've been having meetings with different members of congress. they've been very successful meetings. we'll see how it all turns out. this is a priority that is shared by members of both parties, and most importantly it's shared with the american people and by the american people. to begin the conversation on the issue, i have laid out the principles on the biggest and boldest infrastructure initiative in at least a half a century. this framework will lead to a $1.5 trillion investment in american infrastruc

that's an allegation porter continues to strongly deny. again, it was the photos this week that led to porter's dismissal. kelly wrote his colleagues. he said this last night. "while we're all processing the shocking and troubling allegations made about 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." i want to share this, too. here's what one of hills ex-wives said about the abuse and her concern for the woman that porter is parentally dating, hope hicks. >> you think he's changed? >> i don't think he's changed. if i'm being frank with you, if he hasn't already been abusive with hope, he will. and particularly now that he's under a lot of stress and scrutiny, that's when the behaviors come out. >> very difficult to watch that. porter says this is all a smear campaign and the pictures don't represent exactly what transpired that night. what will still be a story here moving forward, bill, is when did chief of staff

porter did or did not. but these things get flagged. >> his wives told the truth. >> they went to the press. they were interviewed by the fbi. do you think that in the end, someone goes down because a lie is uncovered or do you think we continue to stagger along like this? >> i wonder how much of this process is still -- it just goes back to norms. if the president can ultimately at the end of the day give someone a clearance that the fbi would not approve, you know, in disagreement with the fbi, then nothing really matters. i remember during the bush white house that to be able to circulate freely in the west wing you had to have a badge. you had to have a certain level of clearance. certainly the staff secretary had the highest level of clearance and would not have been in that role on some kind of temporary -- >> right. they wouldn't place that person until the full clearance. >> if you're the ceo of a public company, hiring would be through a process, an hr. think about how he fired and hired. he doesn'

maybe you didn't know who rob porter is. you know who he is now. he's at the president's side constantly. they are together one on one. but the fbi was not able to make the interim security clearance. there they are together. permanent. because there were series issues. but sarah sanders acted like the president of the united states who is with him all the time was not in the loop. >> does the president have any concerns about these domestic violence allegations raised against rob porter? >> i haven't spoken to him. >> you haven't talked to him? >> about whether he has special concerns, i haven't asked him. >> has he seen the photographs with the black eye? >> i don't know. >> april? >> let me say this, my sources say that everyone knew. that he made it clear what had happened. and they were okay with it. but sarah of course is going to defend the president because it does not body well for someone who stands so close to the president to be involved for these things to be alleged about him. so what sarah did today is not say yes or no president's u

shareday president trump his thoughts on porter. president trump: he said very strongly yesterday that he's innocent. so you'll have to talk to him about that. but we absolutely wish him well. did a very good job while he was at the white house. robert: you spoke wit one of his ex-wives, jennifer willowbee. put a human face on this story. >> well, i spoke to jennifer. he has quite a story to tell. she says that her relationship was abusive mostly. emotionally abusive. sh does describe an incident when she was in the shower, she was pulled off aggressively by rob porter. she filed aer resthraining o and during that time he crashed in a window. she was tealrified. shed police. but what i also found very significant about what she said is that she told all of this to the f.b.i. she shared her sto with the f.b.i. as did rob porter's first wife. andhe was very detailed, she says. when they asked her if rob porter coulde vulnerable to blackmail? maybe because he h had all these volatile relationships. the white house was made aware of thi

porter appeared to be acknowledging that he had this past? >> i think it's fair to say that, you know, we all could have done better over the last few hours or last few days in dealing with this situation. >> reporter: just yesterday, the white house released a statement of chief of staff kelly praising porter as a man of true integrity and honor. white house communications director, hope hicks, romantically involved with porter, drafted that statement when the reports of abuse first emerged. cnn was told that was before the release of photos of one of porter's ex-wives with a black eye, and late last night, a walkback from kelly saying he was shocked by the new allegations, that there's no place for domestic violence in the society, and believes every individual deserves the right to defend their reputation, but accepted porter's resignation, but the problem, sources say, that kelly and other white house staffers have known for months that porter's background check brushed up allegations of abuse from his past, raising questions of what did

the president said rob porter maintained innocence. he never talked about stories of abuse of the former wives. as this moves on, one question here remains at the white house. security clearance. 30 to 40 officials in the white house and political appointees operating under temporary security clearance. cl including jared kushner. questions remain today on this. even one week later. christine and dave. >> let's talk about that budget. you are right. the white house released the 2019 budget blueprint. with the two-year spending bill, this budget will not be adopted by congress. it showcases the president's priorities for government spending. $200 billion to spur infrastructure spending. $23 billion for border security. including funding for a wall. $17 billion to fight the opioid especially em i-- epidemic. imagine food delivery for food stamp recipients. or privatizes the nasa space station. $666 billion, one of the largest in u.s. history. this cuts deficits in ten years. the president recently signed two deficit increasing bills. the

porter as opposed to his alleged victims. why did the president tweet that over the weekend, and why is he seemingly defending mr. porter publicly? is it because he has faced his own allegations? is there some sensitivity there? sec. sanders: as i just said, and i will repeat again, the president and entire demonstration take the mystic violence very seriously and believe all allegations need to be investigated thoroughly. he certainly supports the victims of the method violence above all else and believes everyone should be treated fairly and with due process. the president is silly saying there should be due process that should be followed and looked at. reporter: it is very tone deaf. being on the wrong side of things. sec. sanders: i don't think the president being supporting due process for any allegation is not tone deaf. i think it is allowing things to be investigated and a mere allegation not be the determining factor. he's not taking a side necessarily one way or another on any specific issue here. he's talking abou

why was rob porter able to keep his interim security clearance? the white house explains that away by saying it was allowing law enforcement, the fbi, to continue its investigation, to look into these allegations. we are told that in terms of john kelley's future here, the president is from ustrated, you set, but he will continue in his job, that there is no consideration to let him go. raj shaw also said he has confidence in him. also interesting to point out here is that raj shaw changed the language in terms of what happened with porter. yesterday they said porter resigned and that he would be staying on for a while. then today raj shaw says he was terminated yesterday and he just came in this morning to clean his tesdesk. we should mention rob porter denies all these allegations. >> it was fascinating, though, from the white house today, from raj shaw, who point blank was asked, did general kelley know about these allegations months ago? that's a yes or no question. he kept saying, i'm not going to get into a tick-tock, i'm not going to get in

porter was one of kelly's top aides. kelly credited him with helping streamline and better control the flow of information into the president which was a reproblem for months and months in this administration. as you indicated, porter was a frequent presence at the president's side whether it's in the oval office or on trips. he was there for his journey to asia late last year. and kelly knew of these allegations before they became public. and led inside the white house a movement to convince porter to stay. this happened yesterday when the first stories came out and kelly maintained that today even when second wave of allegations were published. but it must be said, porter lost some internal support inside the building once those photos of abuse emerged. kelly was at a much more isolated position then and porter decided he would resign. >> there was a very strange reaction to that, the quote from porter about how he took those pictures 15 years ago. but there was no end to that sentence. there was no, i took those pictu

porter. he's dependent on him. he's the sort of staff secretary that makes the trains run on time. they had each other's back. they trusted each other. and he was acting more like a deputy chief of staff in many ways than just the staff secretary. and so i think you put all of this together, and it becomes this kind of situation where it makes you wonder in fact how long the chief of staff can survive this if the president is so upset about this. >> especially reportedly saying, giving him advice not to resign, saying that he could weather this. again, this is an accused domestic abuser. >> right. you have to question kelly's judgment. and, you know, people inside the white house say, look, many of them like kelly, some of them don't like kelly because he silos everything and keeps them away from the president. but one thing most people seem to agree on is that he doesn't have any political sense. and, you know, he doesn't understand -- >> political? gloria, listen. >> no, in terms of -- >> i

rob porter resigned wednesday, left thursday. shouldn't the president have been told about this right away? is there some kind of protocol here that was bypassed? >> and the reporting is that the white house began assembling statements in porter's defense as early as tuesday. and alex, it's important to remember that not having a security clearance go through for as long a period of time as we've seen with porter, is a flag in itself. we've seen there wasn't action taken between the first indications and this week. i want to bring up something related to betsy's point, that for john kelly, this is a big moment. people are looking into his past and looking about how he dealt with sexual assault and harassment allegations when he was in the military. he's also been in hot water for a little bit of time now. you can remember he said the other day, that daca recipients, people who could have qualified for daca, were too lazy to get up and to file the paperwork and go for legal status. he also said earlier that trump has evolved. obje

their completed report on rob porter. and as of tonight it seems nothing fbi director christopher wray says about this is going to fit the lies being told by the trump white house. joining us now, william yeomans who spent 26 years at the justice department and was the former chief counsel on the senate judiciary committee. also with us matt miller, former spokesperson for attorney general eric holder and an msnbc contributor. and bill yeomans, what happens next, particularly with the fbi director? surely the next time he is testifying at congress, he is going to be asked about this. reporter mace have access to the director before the next time he testifies to congress. we're going to hear more from him. >> well, i think we will. and i think what you've set up really indicates something that's been missing in this whole affair which is serious congressional oversight. this is a situation when congress should really step up. and of course under republican leadership, that is not happening. so, yeah, the fbi director will

porter denies the accusations. chief of staff kelly defending his handling of the situation, though, telling the "wall street journal," "it was all done right." the scrutiny only intensified tuesday after the director of the fbi up-ended the entire white house timeline of events. >> let me go through a quick recap. monday the white house said top officials learned the "extent of the allegations" last tuesday and that porter's background check was still ongoing. but then yesterday, fbi chief chris wray told the senate intel committee the bureau notified the white house of the allegations months ago. >> i submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in march, and then a completed background investigation in late july that is soon -- soon thereafter we received requests for followup inquiry, and we did the followup and provided information in november. and that we administratively closed the file in january. >> this comes as we learn porter was in line for a promotion at the same time the abuse allegati

and that john kelly, who very much relied on rob porter, rob porter has become until yesterday integral part of the kelly machine at the white house, didn't do anything. so -- what we don't know is how specific it got. but at the end of the day, this is a question of leadership, it is a question of ownership. we know from our reporting that the president himself was furious. he didn't know about the specifics until he saw it in the paper. and this is so complicated on so many levels because -- we have to remind people that rob porter is dating hope hicks. who is probably the most important aide in the white house. >> the communications director. >> who helped craft the -- the sort of misleading or at least -- or omitted important facts about rob porter. >> and the second one from kelly said that these were new. and that becomes the issue for me at least, david gregory. i don't care who is dating whom in the white house. i don't. >> but it matters here. >> it only matters if it winds up affecting the performance and the truth to the american people. but it is a big if. and that is the pr

rushing to porter's defense. chief of staff, white house spokesman, after the first allegations came out and then having to pull it back dramatically over the last 24 hours. >> i think it is a problem. raj shah said they could've done better. and they could have. makes no sense why they would go so far in supporting him and praising him and then just hours later suddenly they see that photo. they knew from the fbi about the problems with his vetting process and why he didn't have a security clearance. it's a basic level of competence. you can't go out there unless you know the answers to the questions. what happens now is unclear. we have heard the president is saddened then disturbed but certainly we haven't heard he's unhappy with john kelly or feels he should make any big changes. >> chris: i want to the turn to the case of john kelly. his earlier statement, kelly said "rob porter is a man of true integrity and honor. i can't say enough good things about him. he is a friend, a confidant, and a trusted professi

as great as rob porter was at his job, as close as the president got to rob porter, because he was around him all the time as staff secretary, meaning he was handing him papers all day long, he's not as close to rob porter as we are with hope hicks, who we reported has been in a romantic relationship with rob porter. and one of rob porter's ex-wives was on cnn saying based on her experience and the experience of the other ex-wife and apparently of the girlfriend that he was most recently with before hope hicks that hope could have been next. if that is not enough to think about the real victor potential victor alleged victim -- >> i know. >> nobody aside from his own daughters and own flesh and blood that the president reveres and feels as close to professional at this point than hope hicks. that is just -- i'm having trouble wrapping my mind around that. >> and what about a presses of the united states not showing any concern that somebody who was handing him all of these classified documents and perhaps reading some of these classified documents and spent so much time with him, as dana

and stand by porter. before he had resigned, they were issuing glowing statements. sanders praising porter as someone of the highest and exemplary the character. and rob porter is a man of true integrity and honor and i can't say ghuf things about him. and it went even further. that shortly after noon that day, last wednesday, white house press secretary sarah sanders called to her office four top print report here's had questions about porter. there was rob porter. he spoke with them off the record sharing his side of the stories involving his two ex-wives and their very disturbing charges. this was after the daily mail published two reports detailing the accusations and after that black eye photograph of porter's first ex-wife was published by the intercept. one source says the white house saw this off the record discussion first reported by politico as an opportunity to tell his side of the story. whatever the motivations, nike mistake. this was the communications staff of the white house facilitating

>> do you believe rob porter's ex-wife? >> fbi director christopher wray stunned washington, contradicting the white house's timeline of events. >> we did the follow up and provided that information in november. and then we administrative closed the file in january. >> aides on tuesday offering another new explanation, insisting the white house personnel security office hasn't completed its review. >> so who's telling the truth here? >> both. as i said, the fbi portion was closed, the white house personnel security office, who is the one that makes a recommendation for adjudication, had not finished their -- were not made a recommendation to the white house. >> bottom line, my sources say, john kelly lied and turned his team into liars without them knowing. >> will the oversight committee be launching an investigation into this? >> we did last night. >> russia is expected to not only continue, but expand its efforts to meddle in the u.s. political system, including the upcoming midterm elections. >> frankly, the united stat