White House Counselor to the President @KellyannePolls tells @GStephanopoulos she spoke with Pres. Trump last night and “he has full confidence in his current chief of staff, General John Kelly…he also has full confidence in Hope Hicks, his communications director.” #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/hMsIHWgFUf
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 11, 2018
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on Sunday that President Trump has full confidence in chief of staff John Kelly amid the fallout from abuse allegations against former staff secretary Rob Porter.
“I spoke with the president last night about this very issue and he wanted me to re-emphasize to everyone, including this morning that he has full confidence in his current chief of staff Gen. John Kelly and that he is not actively searching for replacements,” Conway told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.”
{mosads}Porter resigned from his White House post on Wednesday after abuse allegations from his two ex-wives surfaced. Kelly reportedly knew for months that Porter had not obtained a full security clearance due to the allegations.
NBC News reported last week that Trump was considering possible replacements for Kelly amid the fallout.
The president tweeted Saturday that people’s “lives are being shattered … by a mere allegation.”
“What the president is saying when he is talking about due process, he’s right in this way, we are a country of laws,” Conway said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But we as individuals have a duty to assess everybody on a case-by-case basis,” she added.
Conway, during the ABC News interview, also defended the president’s treatment of women in the White House.
“Why would someone like me and other women work there?” Conway asked.
“He has many times come to the aid of women privately,” she said. “That’s the Donald Trump I see and I know.”
Luis Sanchez contributed to this report, which was updated at 9:28 a.m.