Smoke out the spin. The facts that matter this week. Good morning. Two white house aides resign charged with abuse by their former wives. President trump defending the men rallying against mere allegations that ruin lives. That fits a pattern for President Trump. Behind the scenes he is seething. His team is cracking. The knives are out for john kelly and the president s closest personal aid, hope hicks. A staff shakeup is looming. Just another week in the trump white house. We certainly wish him well. Its obviously a tough time for him. He did a very good job when he was in the white house and we hope he has a wonderful career. That was President Trumps First Response to the resignation of rob porter after porter was accused of abuse by both of his exwives. Porter second wife Jennifer Willoughby said this to the washington post. He grabbed me by the shoulders here and pulled me out of the shower in a rage. His first wife Colbie Holderness said he punched her in the face leaving this black eye. They shared their story with the fbi a year ago who found the claims credible. One fact preventing porter from getting fbi security clearance. No mention of that by President Trump on friday. He also as you know says hes innocent. You have to remember that. He said very strongly that hes innocent. On saturday he doubled down with this tweet peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by the mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and new. There is no recovery from someone falsely accused. Is there no such thing as due process . Trump has a history of dismissing claims of abuse and Sexual Misconduct against friends like bill oreilly i know bill. Bill is a good person. I dont think he would do anything wrong. Friends like bill oreilly allies the senator candidate roy he totally denies it. You have to listen to him also. And of course himself. Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign. As you have seen, im a victim of one of the great political smear campaigns in the history of our country. All contributing to his low Approval Rating with women, 29 . This latest white house crisis may be the final straw. Are you saying the chief of staff of this white house had no idea that rob porters two exwives had claims against him for Domestic Abuse . They made those claims to the fbi, john kelly did not know that . How is that possible the chief of staff did not know that . This is part of an ongoing investigation. Tough questions for kelly. He initially called porter a man of true integrity and honor despite reports he had known about the allegations for month. The chief of staff told trump hes willing to resign. The president sounding out possible replacements including gary cohn, mick mulvaney. And congressman mark meadows. Were joined by Kellyanne Conway. Thanks for joins us. Hi, george. A lot to get to this morning. Just the end of the piece, im told youre on the short list of chief of staff. The president is very high on you. Would you accept if he asked . That would be news to me. I spoke to the president last night and he wants everyone to know he has full confidence in john kelly and hes not looking for replacements. He also has full confidence in hope hicks as communication director and longserving aid. There are unsourced stories out there. When it comes to those two individuals, the president has full confidence in their performance. I would also say i serve at the pleasure of the president. I think its incredibly important to subvert your ego to the greater good. Which is for the company. I consider myself one small molecule trying to push forward and agenda that makes us more prosperous and safe. I want to get to more on that. The president hasnt complained on the phone about john kelly and hope hicks to his friends and associates . He hasnt complained to me. I spoke with him last night and asked the question pointedly. He asked me if i was going on any shows. I said yes, i would like to hear directly from you or not say from my perspective what i see. Which is day in and day out working with john kelly as my chief of staff. The president wanted me to emphasize that. Good to hear. Lets get to the president s tweet. Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by an allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused. Life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer than due process . Does the president believe rob porter is falsely accused . Rob porter no longer works at the white house. The stories breaking on tuesday and wednesday morning, by thursday he was out of the white house. You have to look at the result here. Rob porter has gone from one of the top aides to our president to no longer working there. I think the president , like the rest of us, were shocked and disturbed by the allegations. This is not the rob porter any of us had worked with. Looking at police reports, pictures, detailed allegations by these women, yes, we are a nation of laws and due process. All sides should be heard out. You cant ignore what you see in front of you. I think thats what were all saying. We take Domestic Abuse seriously, child abuse, drug abuse, sexual harassment. Theyre serious issues. Theyre not republican or democratic issues. They our scourges on our society. But kellyanne you said the president is shocked. The president himself has not said that. He didnt say he was shocked. He didnt say he was disturbed by these allegations. He didnt say that he was taking Domestic Violence seriously. He said you have to Pay Attention to the fact rob porter talks about hes innocent and people being falsely accused. Does the president believe rob porter is falsely accused . The president believes you have to consider all sides. He said this about incidents that relate to him as well. At the same time you have to look at the result. The result is that rob porter is no longer the staff secretary. The president tells me he learned when the rest of us did, what the allegations are, the pictures, the police reports, the information provided to the fbi, were all trying to process that against the person we worked with for over a year. This president has i think hes doing a great job for americas women. We have to look at the full picture. You have 800,000 women took new jobs last year because of his leadership. You have women who work at over 300 companies now that are getting wages and benefits and Capital Investments within their own communities. Were a safer more prosperous nation including the nations women because of Donald Trumps leadership. Im trying to figure out why the president sent this tweet out yesterday. It ended with is there no such thing any longer such as due process . That applies to court proceedings. Didnt the exwives of rob porter follow due process . They went to the fbi over a year ago, made their testimony over a year ago. Colder holderness provided the photo. They didnt go public. They went to the fbi. The fbi held up. Reported this to the white house. Rob porters security clearance was held up, yet Nothing Happened for months and months. The process has been in place for many years. Were all subject to it. George, perhaps you were when you worked in the white house. We respect the process. We also rely upon it. I know i submitted my fbi forms. Obviously i got my clearance last year. Others have interim clearance. From what i understand from counsels office is there are a lot of misinformation and theres a lot of information going out in the public right now being reported as fact by people who couldnt possibly know. They wont discuss individual fbi investigations. We have to respect that. At the same time an interim security clearance was granted to rob porter to allow him to continue. That is the case for others who work in the white house currently and in other white houses. This is a process thats gone on a long time. We respect and rely upon that process. Of course i was subject to the same process. In most white houses you talk to former staff secretaries and people who worked on this in the past. If credible allegations from two former wives about Domestic Violence were brought forward, the permanent security clearance would be denied and that person would no longer be working in the white house. Are you saying don mcgowan and chief of staff kelly were not told about the allegations about rob porter. That is what has been reporting. You said that was false reporting. What im saying is false reporting is some of the information about rob not getting permanent security clearance. He was not denied one. The process was ongoing. He didnt get it. He didnt get it. The fbi brought forward the allegations and found the allegations credible. That was the reason he didnt have the security clearance correct . People like me are learning it this week like youre learning it. What im saying to you is there is a process in place we rely on and respect. That was being followed here. Im also told that is why investigations continue and not why theyre ceased. There probably are instances im guessing there are probably instances the fbi is looking at a background check and saying this person shouldnt be working in this white house. That was not the case here as far as i can tell. Let me repeat myself. No, hold on. Let me interrupt you. Colby holderness told the fbi she thought rob porter was vulnerable to blackmail because of these allegations. They were allegations made more than a year ago. They were found to be credible and presented to the white house chief of staff and counsel. Nothing happened. I dont know that to be true. Im not a good source for you on that. I personally dont know who received that information and when. I would not as counselor to the president im not chief of staff or white House Counsel i would not be made privy to that. Good because that would thats about somebody elses investigative process. That should not be shared broadly. Let me repeat, im well aware in having read those articles many times what these women said to the fbi, im aware of the contemporaneous police reports. Im very aware of the pictures. That is one back drop. The other is you have to ask the individuals who were in the direct line what they knew. I i i ily i will tell you something else. Its actually good that the rest of us dont know things like that. This information affects all of the people involved in any one investigation. I appreciate that. We did ask for chief of staff john kelly to join us. We were told he was not available. You say you spoke with the president. Has the president seen the testimony of the two former wives . Has he seen the pictures . Does he believe them . I know the president read the articles. I know he saw exactly what the rest of us saw. It is not clear to me he has seen any underlying documents the fbi may have in their possession. Again, he accepted the resignation within 48 hours of these stories running, resignation tendered and accepted, clearing out your desk. The staff secretary no longer works there. Its a disappointment in terms of what the president said the other day. This is somebody he worked closely with. Nobody suspected this. Nobody knew this. He was a highly competent member of the senior staff. All that melts away when confronted with this information in terms of whether or not this man can continue in this job. Kellyanne, why cant the president say so . There seems to be a pattern when a friend or ally, a man of the president gets involved with these allegations of abuse or sexual harassment, the president s sympathy seems to go right to the man, whether its roger ailes, bill oreilly, roy moore or rob porter. Why is that . Do you understand the problem it creates for the president . This is a man who shows great compassion and understanding for women on many different issues. I frankly wouldnt work there if that was the case. I can work lots of other places for lots of money. Why would someone like me and many other women be there . He is an excellent boss to work for, for women and working mothers. Hes there as president of the United States because he wants to do well across all americans. In other words do good for the country. We are a more prosperous nation. Unemployment among women is at an 18year low. That should matter to people. I see him express sympathy. He has come to the aid of women privately whether he has secured employment for them or given them a hand up, read an article about them. Or had his team at trump tower contact them and help them. Thats the donald trump i see and know. I really would ask everyone to look at that many times as well. Well you can feel many Different Things about the same situation. I know he has great empathy and compassion. When he had the press pool in on friday, he was meeting with two gentlemen into the oval office. He read their story about they attended the inauguration. He sent them money and they used the money for the ailing father. That got no coverage. At the time he talked about rob porter saying hes rob porter saying hes innocent. He did not say that. He said he pointed to rob porter saying he is porter saying he is innocent. I want to talk to kirsten gillebrand. Its not surprising he doesnt believe survivors or understand the conversation. If he wants due process for the dozen allegations against him lets have congressional hearings tomorrow. George, let me say something. Those accusers have had their day on your network and elsewhere for a long time. They were trotted out again last year. I dont need a lecture from Kirsten Gillibrand who harbored a sitting president who had sexual relations in the oval office and was impeached for lying. I dont need a lecture from her or anyone else. She since of course has said that president clinton had resigned. Lets call this what it is. Thats a Democrat Party bereft of any ideas and accomplishments. Everybody thats happened has happened without them. In the course of month her Democratic Party voted to shut down the government, sat on their hands when patriotic things were being said including a 12yearold boy who put flags on veterans graves. Not a single one voted for a tax cut that is helping millions and millions of american workers, including women. Millions of americans. This is about a party auditioning for 20 20. Remember they said theyre not dealing on anything until they got daca. The president put forth a document on daca on october 8th. What are they doing . He said hell give a pathway to citizenship for the 1. 8 million. He has the budget caps going. 6 billion for opioids, 4 billion for veterans. Were going to fund our military. Where is the democratic leadership . These are serious things for women in the workplace. Wife been talki ive been talking about it for years myself. Ive been a victim myself. Youve cant look at the victim based on politics or where she works. You cant talk about this issue in a context without recognizing this is a Democratic Party bereft of ideas. You packed a lot into that answer. I want to ask a final question on this subject. On thursday the president s spokesman said situation could have been handled better by the white house. Does the president believe that . Weve been told he was unhappy by that admission. The president feels stories and photographers and details were coming out into public view late tuesday into wednesday. Resignation tendered and accepted, out of the building by thursday. The pers he took very swift action and the person no longer works here. There was no longer take a breather, get yourself the help you need, come back. Hes gone. That is handling situation expeditiously. It was one that caught all of us most of us, all of us unau unaware. You admitted you werent in the loop on this. Theres credible reporting im glad to not be in the loop. General kelly said otherwise. You would have to ask him the questions squarely. I can speak for what i knew. Hes now denying he knew about these allegations for months . You would have to talk to general kelly. From the president s perspective you asked me a question about what the president thought. This is what workplaces all across the country should see. Swift action. It was rob porter who felt he should resign and he did. The president is saying while he was there he did a good job. Hes talking about his work performance and the person no longer works there because what you and i have seen and read. Listen, all these issues apart from this white house and abc, apart from any workplace, issues of child abuse, drug use, Domestic Abuse, have been scourges on society. If everybody wants to have a serious conversation about it lets have. That is not what we heard from the president. On the democratic memo the president said he wants more redactions. Subject to what the fbi decides. Its getting criticism from democrats and republicans. Congressman amash says the American People deserve the opportunity to read both memos. Does the American Public deserve that . It went through the same process meaning Legal Counsel and National Security team looked at it. They feel it reveals sources and methods that were not the case in the republican memo. Its going back to congress so they can do what they need to do so the memo can be released. Congressman schiff is complying with that process. The president is inclined to have released both of them. The democratic memo is longer and more involved. Those in a position to know National Security and lawyers have said that it contains sources and methods that could be very compromising. They want to make sure that is cured before it is released to the public. This president calls for transparency and accountability. We know now that through Christopher Steele the reason for the fisa warrants being granted in the first place to surveil a former Campaign Adviser who donald trump said he never met and carter page said he never met donald trump. We know the expenditures were paid for by the Democratic Campaign and Hillary Clinton campaign. The president has been victimized by this for over a year. We have to be careful about investigating all this. In terms of sources and methods this is not congress putting on a tv appearance saying this is what i think, this is what i know. This is serious business. If it takes time, we should respect it. The president is inclined to declassify it. I think theres a lot of dispute whether both were handle the same way. We have to leave it there. Kellyanne conway thank you for you time. Thank you george. Well be back with congressman Shawn Patrick maloney and Chris Christie. Patrick ma honey and Chris Christie. What is the power of pacific . Its Life Insurance and Retirement Solutions to help you reach your goals. Its having the confidence to create the future thats most meaningful to you. Its protection for generations of families, and 150 years of strength and stability. And when youre able to harness all of that, thats the power of pacific. Ask a Financial Advisor about pacific life. You were borne to rock. Borne to piggyback. And you dont want anything stopping you. Airborne plus betaimmune boosterâ„¢ is the only immune support with vitamins and minerals, plus an added ingredient proven to boost your natural defenses. Airborne. Stay with me, mr. Parker. When a critical patient is far from the hospital, the hospital must come to the patient. Stay with me, mr. Parker. The at t network is helping First Responders connect with medical teams in near real time. Stay with me, mr. Parker. Saving time when it matters most. Stay with me, mrs. Parker. Thats the power of and. This is charlie not coughing because he took delsym. This is charlie not coughing while not to waking zeus. And this is charlie not coughing while getting really into nanas party. Nothing lasts longer than delsym for powerful cough relief. Money managers are pretty much the same. All but while some push High Commission investment products, Fisher Investments avoids them. Some advisers have hidden and layered fees. Fisher investments never does. And while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, Fisher Investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. Maybe thats why most of our clients come from other money managers. Fisher investments. Clearly better money management. Fast like stop staring atcaps help youthe clock fast,st, like stop worrying about your boss fast, like wow, youre already asleep fast. When life keeps you up. Zzzquil helps you fall asleep in as little as 20 minutes. And watery near pugs. Chy for all the people who sneeze around dust. Theres Flonase Sensimist allergy relief. It relieves all your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. Its more complete allergy relief. And all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. Flonase sensimist helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. Most pills only block one. And 6 is greater than 1. Flonase sensimist. [ click, keyboard clacking ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ click, keyboard clacking ] good questions lead to good answers. Our advisors can help you find both. Talk to one today and see why were bullish on the future. Yours. We are back now with Chris Christie and democratic congressman sean patrick maloney. Congressman, let me begin with you. You held the job that rob porter had. You heard Kellyanne Conway saying they were following the regular process. Right. I did that job. You know, when i did that job, the fbi sent agents from the field office to the small village in peru where i worked with the jesuits between college and law school. That process is incredibly exacting. These guys knew about the fact pattern that would have permanently disqualified him from doing the job. That guy never should have been in the chair. There are a stack of red folders marked top secret. Every day our highest secrets are seen by the house secretary. Theres a burn bag under the desk because you burn the materials when youre done. The idea that someone was allowed to be there in the first place without a security clearance, despite these allegations, and was able to stay there without a plan for getting him clearance is not the normal process. When the fbi brings this to don mcgowan whats supposed to . Theyre supposed to dq him, sideline him. You dont want him reading material that is so sensitive that only the president can see sometimes and the staff security. People dont understand, the National Security doesnt give a memo to the president. He gives it to the staff secretary who gives it to the president. That means the staff secretary literally sees everything. You know this. Therefore you cannot have someone seeing our nations secret who has a secret of their own. Theyre so easy to blackmail. Don mcgowan clearly knew about this several months ago. Clear reports that john kelly did as well. Wheres the break down . In the process. Every assistant in the United States attorney has to go through the same background check youre talking about. When theres a problem, they dont give you progress reports. When theres an issue, it comes to the employing agency to make this decision. Its not the fbis decision. No. The fbi is a collector of facts and information that they would present. In our case it was to the department of justice. You as u. S. Attorney spoke to people at the department of justice and said here are the facts. Are we comfortable providing clearance to this person or not . Are there standards . There are standards in the Bush Administration that would automatically disqualify someone. This was the decision of the white house. Depending when it was presented, whether presented to chief of staff preibus or chief of staff kelly, along with the white House Counsel, theyre the decisionmaking parties here. Clearly theres a break down in process. Hes out of the job now. Thats the appropriate thing. Only after it became public. Listen, what im saying im not justifying the break down in the process. Im saying thats where it had to have landed. It should have landed there sooner if people had been focusing on it. Should someone else pay the price for this . Thats up to the president as to whether or not he views this as a failure of competence in terms of the management that he needs to bring someone else in. From what i understand, john kellys story is he did something in the first 14 minutes after the first 14 months of ignoring it. The fact is theres no way he didnt know about it. Hes up to his neck in it. He chose not to deal with it. We brought this guy in to bring order to the house. We thought kelly was the guy that was to manage the place. If youre going to clean up aisle eight, you cant be throwing around jars of spaghetti sauce. You cannot make a bigger mess than youre cleaning up. To have a guy in the staff secretarys job seeing all our nations secrets by the way, can i back up. You also ignored two women who said the guy beat me. Theres a right and wrong to this as well. What does it say they want that guy so much theyre willing to ignore the credible allegations and then give him a security clearance hell never be able to earn . Whats the answer to that . I dont think there is a good answer to that. The reasons i look at these allegations as credible is because they were done contemporaneously. As a prosecutor youre always trying to examine evidence. One of the ways we examine that is were they made contemporaneously or a long time after . Then you would say why is there a gap. Here with both of mr. Porters exwives they did what we instruct them to do. Go to the police. One obtained a restraining order. Document the abuse. One had a photograph taken and be able to put those things in line and to get out of the situation. Not a word about that from the president. I look at this and cant help but do it, not as a former governor, but as a prosecutor. When you see credible allegations like that, you have to take them seriously. Should there be due process for rob porter . Of course. Everyone is entitled to that. As an employer, you have to look at the allegations and say are they credible, if that are, you have to take actions. Theres no due process as to whether someone gets a high level west wing job. Its a privilege. My butt would have been kicked down the stairs within five minutes learning Something Like this. It would have been the right thing to do. They had to make a value judgment on this. By the way, whats the plan . The guy is never going to get National Security clearance, yet he is reading top secret things every day. I think there is some requirement for due process. Thats why the employing agency has to make judgments. I dont think its enough to say that any allegation should dismiss it. But what were talking about here is a year. In this instance i said my opinion. For the congressman to say theres no right to due process here, there is. Theres a right to due process for an employing agency to make an evaluation of the allegation. From my perspective given the contemporaneous nature they were credible enough. Does john kelly have to go . If i may, you wouldnt put the guy in the job while you gave him that process. Everyone gets the job first. On january 20th everyone cant have their clearance. Thats right. They learned in january of 2017 of the allegations. That means normally you dont have that in front of you when the do the initial clearance. You knew the guy was never going to get cleared. It seemed to me the appropriate think would have been to say you get your day in course, but youll sit on the sidelines. Were out of time. Does john kelly have to go . The president has to make that call. I think in the end we have to hear from john kelly what he knew. We havent heard that directly from him. I think the president needs to hear that. In the end, george, this is about competence. As the chief of staff you have to be able to competently run the place. The president has to make that call. Thank you very much. Round table standing by. Well be right back. Round table standing by. Well be right back. Whos the new guy . They call him the whisperer. The whisperer . Why do they call him the whisperer . He talks to planes. He talks to planes. Watch this. Hey watson, whats avionics telling you . Maintenance records and performance data suggest replacing capacitor c4. Not bad. Whats with the coffee maker . Sorry. We are not on speaking terms. Whats with the coffee maker . You were borne to travel. Borne to rock. Borne to piggyback. And you dont want anything stopping you from doing what you love. So if youre looking to give your immune system extra support. Only airborne plus betaimmune booster is made with a crafted blend of vitamins and minerals, plus an added ingredient proven to boost your natural defenses. Keep doing what you were borne to do. Airborne plus beta immune booster. But when we brought our daughter home, that was it. Now i have nicoderm cq. The nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release Technology Helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. Its the best thing that ever happened to me. Every great why needs a great how. We have a question about your brokerage fees. Fees . What did you have in mind . I dont know. 4. 95 per trade . Uhhh and i was wondering if your brokerage offers some sort of guarantee . Guarantee . Where we can get our fees and commissions back if were not happy. So can you offer me what schwab is offering . Whats with all the questions . Ask your broker if theyre offering 4. 95 online equity trades and a satisfaction guarantee. If you dont like their answer, ask again at schwab. Sure smells amazing. Even in accounts receivable. New gain botanicals laundry detergent, bring the smell of nature wherever you are. [coughs] that cough doesnt sound so good. Well i think you sound great. Move over. Easy booger man. Take mucinex dm. Itll take care of your cough. Fine ill text you in 4 hours when your cough returns. One pill lasts 12 hours, so. Looks like im good all night. Ah david, please, listen. Still not coughing. Not fair you guys waffles are my favorite ah why take 4hour coughmedicine . Just one mucinex lasts 12 hours. Start the relief. Ditch the misery. Lets end this. Round table ready to go. All week long get all the news on politics on the abc app. Download it during the break. The news on politics on the abc app. Download it during the break. K long get all the news on politics on the abc app. Download it during the break. Can leave you on shaky ground. Help take control by asking about your treatment options. Vraylar is approved for the acute treatment of manic or mixed episodes of bipolar i disorder in adults. Clinical studies showed that vraylar reduced overall manic symptoms. Vraylar should not be used in elderly patients with dementia due to increased risk of death or stroke. Call your doctor about fever, stiff muscles, or confusion, which may mean a lifethreatening reaction, or uncontrollable muscle movements, which may be permanent. Side effects may not appear for several weeks. High cholesterol and weight gain; high blood sugar, which can lead to coma or death; decreased white blood cells, which can be fatal; dizziness upon standing; falls; seizures; impaired judgment; heat sensitivity; and trouble swallowing may occur. Youre more than just your bipolar i. Ask your doctor about vraylar. This is charlie. And this is charlie not coughing because he took delsym 12hour. This is charlie not coughing while trying not to wake zeus. This is charlie not coughing while sitting very still. And this is charlie not coughing while getting a little too into nanas party. Because he took delsym. Nothing lasts longer for powerful cough relief. Delsym. The joy of not coughing. And dont forget kids 4 and up. Delsym is 1 pediatrician recommended. Do you want clean, stain free dentures . Try polident. The four in one cleaning system kills 99. 99 of odor causing bacteria, cleans where brushing may miss. Helps remove stains and prevent stain build up. Use polident daily. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. Hey, need fast try cool mint zantac. It releases a cooling sensation in your mouth and throat. Zantac works in as little as 30 minutes. Nexium can take 24 hours. Try cool mint zantac. No pill relieves heartburn faster. Traders theyre always looking for advantages. The smart ones look to fidelity to find them. We give you research and datavisualization tools to help identify potential opportunities. So, you can do it this way. Or get everything you need to help capture investment ideas and make smarter trading decisions with fidelity for just 4. 95 per online u. S. Equity trade. Fidelity. Open an account today. Open an account today. [coughs] that cough doesnt sound so good. Well i think you sound great. Move over. Easy booger man. Take mucinex dm. Itll take care of your cough. Fine ill text you in 4 hours when your cough returns. One pill lasts 12 hours, so. Looks like im good all night. Ah david, please, listen. Still not coughing. Not fair you guys waffles are my favorite ah why take 4hour coughmedicine . Just one mucinex lasts 12 hours. Start the relief. Ditch the misery. Lets end this. Did did anybody happen to see the state of the Union Address . You have the other side even on really positive news like that, they were like death and unamerican, unamerican. Somebody say tree soun somebody said treasonness. Why not . Can we call that treason . Why not . I marvel at some of the things he says and does. Anybody that didnt stand up and clap for him unamerican. They say it was tongue and cheek. Democrats cant take a joke. Hes a joke. You can be forgiven if you forgot about that. Well get to the round table. Matthew dodd, megan murphy, david axelrod, alex castianos and our senior White House Correspondent cecelia vegas. Matt, youve worked in the white house. David worked in the white house as well. We just heard from congressman maloney. Where was the break down their in this rob porter story . Can i respond to Kellyanne Conway . Whoo her relationship with truth is moes chart bly described as its complicated in this. First of all for me we ought to fire any abuser. Secondly, in this day and age the fault position should be believe the women. This is where i fault Kellyanne Conway and fault general kelly and the general counsel and this is where i fault the president. This is allowed to exist in america in every walk of life because people enable it. They decide the ends justify the means. They decide somebody is doing their job well. Ill disagree with governor christie on something. This isnt about competence. This is about a moral problem. Its a moral situation that the president through his own actions and his actions over the years has allowed this to fester. This is what happens. We saw the reaction from the white house when it was first reported. Appeared to be some shock even though several staffers knew for this about weeks and months. Were back in the early chaos land of trump administration. Seeing Kellyanne Conway theyre very much still struggling with what the messaging is on this one. If the message is rob porter is out, he resigned, therefore, we did the right thing. Lets go back to a few days ago when Sarah Sanders said rob porter resigned on his own. He was not forced out. General kelly and Sarah Sanders are both praising him. When the photos come out, general kelly said he stood by his praise of rob porter. Then the president ial comments from the oval office which really seemed extraordinary, but arent remarkable at all when youre talking about the president coming to the defense of men in this situation. Alex, the president is pretty transparent. What we saw in the tweets is exactly what he thinks. Its what he is. This president is the predator, the t rex, the voters sent to washington to protect them from the other smaller slimier predators. Theres a reason he has problems with women. I think this president would say i never grabbed a woman i didnt respect. Thats a real problem. A lot of trump voters look at this and say, wait a minute, were going to stone this guy. Even iran gives you a hearing before they stone you. Yes, lets believe the women, but verify. The mob has gathered. Charges have been made. Is that enough . I want to take what matthew said and double down on it. Women die because of silence in this situation. Women die because theyre not believed. Women die in these situations. I want to say to any women if you have this in your relationship, take this out of politics for a minute. Please come forward as Chris Christie said. Do exactly as these women did. Contact your Law Enforcement and tell your family members. To our First Responders and first reonders dealing with this. Thank you so much for responding. This is not about iran. Its about women and believing them. These stories rob porter may be a creep who pummels hes more than that. He may be a reformed creep. I hope he has. Yes, lets believe. Lets also listen to they had the information, alex, for 13 months. By the way being removed as staff secretary is not stoning. Its destruction of life. They had well, so is Domestic Abuse. Were all against that. They had this information for 13 months. That is what is astonishing. General kelly was brought in to make the trains run on time. He was either asleep at the switch or willfully ignored the evidence he was shown. Thats in excusable. You have to wonder, what was don mcgowan thinking when the fbi comes in and says here are the pictures. Here are the allegations not from one, but from two women. Yet theres no follow up investigation . To me they all could be faulted. This goes back to the president of the United States. This is not a staff problem. This is not a bad management problem. Thats like saying escobar has a staff problem because drug smugglers worked for him. Donald trump could not get security clearance if he worked in the white house. Based on all his actions and 12 women who accused him of Sexual Misconduct. Based on the when his first wife said she was raped by him and then recanted, based on the fact the guy had fraud charges against him for his trump university. We hadnt heard from the president for the first three days this controversial story was out there. He wasnt supposed to speak to reporters that day. They were brought into the oval office where he made comments where he praised rob porter. That was his first message, to praise rob porter. The problem for this white house right now is what is the message they are sending to women in this country, to women who have been beaten, assaulted, to women who have been molested by men. Even if you have the evidence, we dont believe you. He sent kellyanne to fix that a little bit talking about female unemployment. Yes, Kellyanne Conway harkening that statistic. Look we all what females in the labor force. You know the best way to do that, making policies to empower women. To be supported when they accuse people ahead of them of abuse which is what we have here. For 13 months they knew about this. They did nothing. Its appalling. Its an appalling indictment of this white house. We should not sit here and treat it as another outrage. When kellyanne said this is how a workforce treats these kinds of incidents, i say no. I would not want to work at this white house. I dont think anybody at this table would want to. Nor would we be invited. Nor would we be invited. I would love to believe that a ratcheting economy is going to help republicans in 2018. I dont think so. I dont think the reaction to donald trump is about dollars and cents. Its cultural. Its personal. Its visceral. Women are going to come out in droves in 2018. On this point, steve bannon talking to Michael Lewis at bloomberg said this. Its not me too. Its not just sexual harassment. Its an anti patriot movement. This is coming. This is real. I think you agree with this, megan. Separate some of the rhetoric. This is real. The resistance is real. Look at whats happened since the election in special elections across the country. In virginia there has been a movement driven by women coming out in record numbers. Those marches that we saw the day after the inauguration and again this year, those are not oneday events. This is continuing into elections. I think the great threat to republicans in the fall is what steve bannon is talking about. Everything indicates that is going to be a real problem. I think that fundamentally i agree with steve bannon on this. Hes saying this is a bad thing. Hes saying the end of the patriot is a bad thing. Hes right. Men, mainly white men, have ruled our country and this civilization for thousands of years. Thats coming to an end. Slowly but surely as our country transforms into a much broader country there is a major push back. Donald trumps election was a major push back. People didnt like the fact it was coming to an end. Thats what were seeing. Thats the source of his strength, the strength he still has, the core base. Which is why he doesnt release a democratic memo. The worst thing in Donald Trumps world is show your weakness. Strength holds a dissolving world together. Thats what donald trump displays. But can i its not a dissolving its a growing world. Oh, my god. Look, there are tons of fantastic men out there im surrounded by them right now. Men who deplore this behavior and these comments. There are fantastic bosses, husbands and people who support and empower women. I agree. Lets not its an important point. Its about women and greatness. It is the end of the hierarchy. I call those the good old days. The world is changing. Male authority is gone. It is men and women. One of the things you are seeing is inside this white house theyre dissolving again. The culture cracking apart. They have turned on each other in the wake of these allegations. And one of the people at the center is john kelly. He has a target on his back. Our reporting is he talked to the president within the last 24 hours l. Hours last week of this story breaking and offered his willingness to resign should the president accept it. There are factions. There always has been. For a while it started to straighten itself out over there. Then after this story, this chaos erupted again. We saw a photo recently of everyone from omarosa, scaramucci, porter, everyone is gone. John kelly was brought in to be the grown up in the room. This has been not a good week for them. It was only a couple weeks ago he called dreamers lazy. Lets remember that. People were hoping that john kelly would rub off on donald trump. The fact is donald trump has rubbed off on john kelly. There is no just going back to what matthew said everything in every white house flows from the top. If the president is a disfunctional personality, youll have a dysfunctional white house. It doesnt matter who you bring in as chief of staff, you can manage down. You cant manage up with this president. Anyone who takes the job next, i think reince with there for 192 days, kelly 172. Whoever there next is going to run into the same problem. The problem is the president. The scary part isnt that john kelly hasnt done a good job, its that he has. I think that one thing i disagree with david on is this president has done something really well. His ability to reveal people for who they are. I dont think these people change because of donald trump. I think theyre revealed for who they really are. Anybody that goes into that white house theres already in my mind a question about their moral center. Being in that white house reveals fundamentally who these people are. Weve seen it over and over. The question for someone we heard kellyanne deny it and hes happy with john kelly, has full confidence in john kelly. The president is furious with john kelly and hope hicks. Theres no doubt about it. But hes not actively searching for another chief of staff. You have to imagine somebody is called for this chief of staff job, what do they say to the president . What do they demand . How could he induce them to take it . As david said, the problem is the president. You want to say to these people are you willing to degrade your humanity and integrity and what you want to leave as a legacy. Its about what they want to project. If thats what gary cohn or somebody else theres always someone willing to say i owe it to my country, maybe i can have the impact others havent. Thats true in the job of chief of staff. You were getting to this point. John kelly has perhaps revealed himself. Theres no question a dozen times a day over the last six months hes prevented a disaster. His hair is on fire and hes probably done a better job than we think. Lets also all remember that despite all the outrage and moral concern about this white house, half the American People saw it and said it was more of the same, the status quo, a country weak and not respected in the world and a country where the politicians put themselves and their interests ahead of what they thought was the peoples interest. Neither party has changed or learned since donald trump was elected. Half the country did not thats what empowers donald trump. Half the country did not choose what is going on today. Couldnt agree more. Donald trump is what he is. Everybody saw it. A huge percentage of the people that voted for donald trump voted for donald trump in spite of what he was doing. A quarter of his voters because of the alternative. A third said he wasnt competent, said he didnt have the temperament and hoped he would be different as president of the United States. And thought the alternative was worse. They didnt vote for misogyny. Having people that are Domestic Abusers in the white house. To say that again and again is wrong. Megan, they saw the access hollywood tape. They understood what his attitude was toward these issues. They overlooked it. To overlook it, to vote for him in spite of that, doesnt mean they condone the treatment of women. They voted for him in spite of it. They dont condone the way he treats women. They hoped he would change. Maybe it was a futile hope. Thats all we have time for today. Well be right back. Ange. Maybe it was a futile hope. Thats all we have time for today. Well be right back. Strummed guitar you cant experience the Canadian Rockies through a screen. You have to be here, with us. Upbeat music travel through this natural wonder and get a glimpse of amazing, with a glass of wine in one hand, and a camera in the other, aboard rocky mountaineer. Canadas Rocky Mountains await. Call your travel agent or rocky mountaineer for special offers now. Thanks for sharing part of your sunday with us. Check out world news tonight. Ill see you tomorrow on gma. Sunday with us. Check out world news tonight. Ill see you tomorrow on gma. Up next, details tywon deadly crashes. One involving a passenger plane in russia, the other a helicopter in the grand canyon. A test run at Oakland International airport. What these puppies are being being trained to do to help people in need. A live look from ran raphael wf weve got clouds increasing but boy, is it cool this morning. 43 degrees right now. Temperatures feeling like the season today. Ill at home. Ld generate your own energy, or to save energy, unplug unused appliances. Do your thing, with Energy Upgrade california. At t doesnt. We offer more 35 voice features and solutions that grow with your business. 35 voice the gigspeed networks that powers the dreams of americas businesses is now doing the same for americas olympic and paralympic athletes. Dream gig. Comcast business