I don’t know where to start writing about domestic violence… again. I don’t know how to explain why my emotions are virtually bouncing off the walls of my head… again.  I don’t want to think about my own experiences from long ago… again.  But I won’t be silent about domestic violence… never again.

Political Domestic Violence:

On Wednesday, February 7, 2018, White House staff secretary, Rob Porter, resigned amongst assertions of spousal abuse. The next day, a New York Times article stated “The White House chief of staff John Kelly reportedly knew about these allegations, which are said to be the reason the F.B.I. never gave Porter a full security clearance, ordinarily a prerequisite for his job. Nevertheless, Porter’s past was apparently not considered a problem inside the White House until it became public.” John Kelly knew, thus, it is ludicrous to believe that Donald Trump did not know.

Of course Trump knew about Porter’s security clearance status and why it was being held up. The entire White House staff knew, too. They went into damage control mode, trying to get ahead of the story before Porter’s past could catch up to them. White House officials had reached out to Senator Orin Hatch on Tuesday, asking Hatch to issue a statement in support of Porter. They told Senator Hatch that Porter was being attacked as part of a political “smear campaign”, neglecting to mention the damning story by The Daily Mail– the one that prompted Porter’s resignation- was about to break. Consequently, Senator Hatch put out a second statement about Porter in which he lamely backpedaled on the first one he had put out.

Yes, Trump knew but he just didn’t give a damn about Porter’s (lack of) security clearance or the abuse his ex-wives had endured. Then another White House official, speechwriter David Sorensen, resigned over allegations of spousal abuse. Sorensen worked under senior policy adviser Stephen Miller. He’s trying to blame the victim, claiming that she was the violent one. Trump knew about him, too. 

On Friday, Trump finally spoke to reporters regarding Rob Porter. His statement defended the abuser and ignored the abused. Trump said to reporters, “…as you probably know, he says he’s innocent, and I think you have to remember that. He said very strongly yesterday that he's innocent”. His words were sickening, insensitive commentary and political domestic violence of the lowest kind.  

Deja-Violence:

All this news about Rob Porter and David Sorensen - persons with great political influence/access in positions of power who are domestic violence offenders - gave me “Deja-Violence”.  I’ve been here before, back in the summer of 2011, and the offender’s name was Kris Jordan, an Ohio state senator. But Kris Jordan didn’t resign, nor was he asked to resign. (He is up for re-election this year and is polling ahead of his challenger. WTF is wrong with people?)

In July of 2011, Kris’s wife Melissa called 911 for help because Kris had attacked her. An Ohio political news blog, Plunderbund, covered the story. When they got hold of the video from the cruiser cam recording the night of Melissa’s call, they asked me to preview it because it was so disturbing, they wondered if they should run it. I told them they should run the video. A short time after that, I wrote a guest blog post titled ‘Domestic Violence Must Never Be Tolerated; Especially Not From Our Elected Officials’. It was the first time I told my story publicly and it wasn’t easy for me to find my voice, but I did it with the hope that it might touch just one person’s life, help just one person find their own voice and the strength to break free of domestic violence.