Marcus: Ex-aide abuse allegations give White House black eye

Explain the request for an emergency protective order from Jennifer Willoughby, Porter’s second wife, after, she said, Porter “punched in the glass on the door” of their apartment when he refused to leave, in violation of their separation agreement.

Explain how this man could have been allowed to work at the White House after his ex-wives described this abusive behavior to the FBI.

Explain how White House chief of staff John Kelly, who reportedly knew of the FBI reports, could assert, in a statement circulated before and after the abuse photos emerged, that “Rob Porter is a man of true integrity and honor and I can’t say enough good things about him. He is a friend, a confidante and a trusted professional.”

Yes, true integrity. Take a look at that photo, Gen. Kelly, and tell me how a man of integrity behaves. Explain, finally, how the White House, with this information public, could allow a man facing these allegations to continue, even for a single additional day, to work there.

Let me proffer two categories of explanation. The first involves the reflexive tribalism of any entity, especially one that feels itself under siege. The Trump administration suffers from a singularly morally bankrupt strain of this tribalism, in which loyalty to Trump is prized above all else and failings are ignored.

But there is another phenomenon at work here that goes beyond the see-no-evil enablers of the Trump administration. It involves our continued societal resistance to the notion that domestic abuse knows no class barriers. The wifebeater shirt can equally be a pinstripe suit.

The seeming golden boy

Consider Porter, the seeming golden boy. Harvard College. Rhodes scholar. Republican bona fides (his father, Roger Porter, worked for President George H.W. Bush; Rob Porter served as chief of staff to Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch) to match what the Deseret News called his “strong Latter-day Saint pedigree.” A man like that wouldn’t abuse his wife, would he?

I learned differently, early in my career, writing about the case of John Fedders, who resigned as enforcement chief at the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1985, after his wife accused him of years of beatings. “It happens to all classes of people,” a domestic abuse counselor told me. “It’s just that when you have that much land around your house the screams are not heard by the neighbors.”

The related delusion is that private behavior has no public relevance, that the two can be conveniently separated. Indeed, Willoughby herself expressed this view. “I have the utmost respect for him professionally,” she told The Intercept. “If there was to be a staff secretary in the Trump administration I hope to God it is Rob.”

Not me. Not anyone who understands the true meaning of integrity.