UNITED STATES
USA Today
February 13, 2018
By Joanne Lipman
Military leaders believe the brothers in arms they know, not the female victims they don’t. It’s not surprising that Kelly would defend Porter.
For days, pundits have been puzzling over how John Kelly, the straight-arrow retired general brought in to restore order to the Trump White House as chief of staff, could have tolerated an accused wife-beater as staff secretary.
After all, Kelly was told about Rob Porter’s alleged abuse weeks ago by the FBI, which also informed him that Porter was unlikely to receive security clearance because of it, according to Politico. On Friday, a second White House staffer stepped down after he too was accused of abusing his wife.
The question is, why would Kelly have put up with it?
Here’s one answer that few have dared raise: the ingrained, extensive culture of sexual harassment in the military. Not just tolerating abuse, but allowing it to fester, particularly at the highest levels. The military culture that turned a blind eye to domestic abuse and sex scandals by top brass over a period of many years is the same one that bred John Kelly.
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