Trump and Kelly deserve one another

Ruth Marcus on Feb 11, 2018

The problem, as it turned out, was that Kelly not only reinforced some of Trump's worst instincts -- he displayed them himself. Where Trump resisted condemning white separatists protesting the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville last summer, Kelly followed a few months later with a paean to Lee as "an honorable man" and asserting that "the lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War."

Likewise, Kelly seems to share Trump's inclination to escalate and allergy to apology. After Kelly attacked Florida Democrat Rep. Frederica Wilson as an "empty barrel" and a video showed that he had misrepresented her comments, Kelly vowed that he would "never" apologize.

So Kelly's start-to-finish botching of the Porter situation was of a piece with his faltering past performance, and in line with Trump's own dismissive attitude toward domestic violence. Kelly wasn't "fully aware" of the allegations against Porter? If so, only because he failed to take them seriously. He cared more about keeping one of the few capable people inside the West Wing at his side than about having an accused abuser on the staff.

When the Porter story broke, Kelly's response was classic, Trumpian bravado: to urge Porter to fight on and issue a statement praising him as "a man of true integrity and honor." It took more than a dozen hours after the stomach-churning photograph surfaced of Porter's bruised ex-wife for Kelly to pronounce himself "shocked." Right. Too shocked to respond in real time.

In short, Trump and Kelly deserve one another. Their country deserves better.

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Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.