Former Trump campaign spox: Porter ‘should have been fired’

Jason Miller, the former communications strategist for President Trump’s campaign, said Monday that former White House staff secretary Rob Porter should have been fired — rather than allowed to resign — after domestic abuse allegations against him surfaced.

“I also don’t think that it was good that Rob Porter resigned,” Miller said on CNN. “I think when you have such overwhelming evidence like this, someone like that should have been fired.”

Miller said that if the allegations against Porter are true, then such behavior clearly rises to the level of a crime. Miller said he has no reason to doubt the accounts of Porter’s two ex-wives, who have both alleged that the now-former White House aide physically and emotionally abused them. {mosads}

The allegations against Porter and his subsequent resignation last week has put the White House on the defensive, especially as it scrambles to respond to media reports that senior officials, including chief of staff John Kelly and counsel Don McGahn, knew of the allegations for months. 

The episode has also prompted questions about how Porter was able to hold a White House job in which he handled classified information for more than a year, despite never having obtained a full security clearance, due to the allegations.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined on Monday to delve into specifics about what officials knew about the allegations before they became public, and defended the White House’s handling of the clearance process.

Miller was initially tapped in December 2016 to serve as Trump’s White House communications director. He backed out of that offer, saying at the time that he needed to spend more time with his family. He and his wife were expecting their second child at the time.

But Miller’s decision to not take the White House job came as he faced allegations that he had an extramarital affair with another Trump transition official. That official, A.J. Delgado, gave birth to a son as a result of that affair last year.