Seems that White House Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly, a man deeply schooled in military discipline, was blindsided by former Staff Secretary Rob Porter.
The Staff Secretary is entrusted with handling the most sensitive documents, and, therefore, whoever holds that job is required to have the highest level of security clearance.
That never happened with Porter. He only had interim security clearance.
And now, we have just learned that Porter did such a good job working under Gen. Kelly that plans were afoot to promote him to a higher position in the White House (https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/13/politics/rob-porter-promotion-west-wing/index.html).
Moments ago, with associate solitary reporter Johanna Jones observing even more closely than usual, Donald Trump announced that Kelly, who took the jobs as Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security, and then White House Chief of Staff, primarily out of a sense of duty, has resigned “to spend more time with his family.”
Kelly had come under increasing criticism for not assuring that Porter would be satisfactorily cleared for the responsibility inherent in his office.
At the same time that Trump announced, with deep regret, that Kelly had resigned, he also announced that he has fired FBI Director Christopher Wray. Wray has twice crossed the White House: the first time, when he expressed grave reservations about releasing the notorious Nunes-GOP Memo, and today he upended the White House’s timeline about when it learned of domestic abuse allegations against Porter (https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/13/politics/christopher-wray-white-house-rob-porter/index.html).
Wray is the second FBI Director to be fired by Trump, as Special Counsel Robert Mueller III closes in on Trump’s collusion with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin during the 2016 presidential campaign.
As ASR Jones watched in fascination, Trump said, “To replace General Kelly, I have appointed Sarah Huckabee Sanders as White House Chief of Staff.”
“Sarah totally shares my view that CNN and the rest of the liberal media, all they do is send out fake news.”
“I’ve watched her press briefings, and I like, very much, how she beats up on the press. All the press wants to do is to bring me down, except for my close personal friends at Fox News.”
“Effective immediately, my close personal friend Kellyanne Conway, my campaign manager, will assume the position of White House Press Secretary.”
“My Administration is all about alternative facts. Kellyanne will be great.”
With that, Trump stood up and walked out of the room, as the White House reporters screamed questions, and Trump gave them all the finger.