It's a serious scandal that Rob Porter was hired as White House staff secretary despite his reported history of domestic abuse. It's the sort of debacle where the smart play for critics is to just sit back and watch the chaos unfold.
Give them enough rope, as the saying goes.
But the more wild-eyed anti-Trump critics aren't satisfied to let the administration collapse under the weight of its own incompetence and malfeasance. These critics want to be heard over the din of stupid.
Take, for example, CNN contributor Joan Walsh, who tweeted Thursday, “Is there any reason to hope that [White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders] grew a conscience and shoved [White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah] out into traffic today? Probably not.”
Yes, it’s just a joke. But why bother? There's no point in distracting from this Porter fiasco with the exact sort of Trump-y rhetoric people like Walsh regularly decry. She could benefit from a close study of the saying, “Less is more.” The White House has a serious and ugly scandal on its hands. It’s struggling to explain itself. If you’re a fierce anti-Trump critic, there's no sense in drawing attention away from this mess with some stupid, half-cocked tweet about pushing Shah into traffic.
Porter's ex-wives (that’s plural, not singular) claim he physically abused them. The two women, Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby, have produced what they say is photographic evidence of said abuse.
CBS News reported Wednesday that the FBI informed the White House of Porter’s reported history of violence when it vetted him for a job in the administration. Top Trump officials were informed – and they apparently didn’t care. Porter got the job, and his maybe-sort of resignation this week came only after the Daily Mail broke the story.
I say "maybe-sort of" because I have no idea if Porter has resigned or if he has been fired. No one seems to know. You can thank the White House’s nonsensical and inconsistent responses for this.
CNN’s Kaitlin Collins sums up the absurdity of the White House's messaging on this scandal.
“The White House is all over the map with Rob Porter. He was terminated, he quit, they accepted his resignation, his final day isn't set, his final day was yesterday, they weren’t aware of photos, weren’t 'fully aware,' not the guy they knew, 'not going to get into specifics,’” she tweeted.
In short, this is a giant mess. It's a giant, ugly, and shameful mess for the White House. Then, there's Joan Walsh, out here talking about pushing people into traffic.
Conservative commentator Jesse Kelley often says that all the Left needs to do to win in the age of Trump is just not be crazy for at least ten minutes. They can’t do it. They really can’t.