McCaskill Surprised Chief of Staff Kelly Kept Porter Around

White House chief of staff John Kelly is a person who is used to being in a leadership position, so it does not make sense his most trusted aide, Rob Porter, was allowed to continue working without the security clearance he needed, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said Tuesday.

"Once you find out that your most-trusted aide – that you're giving security sensitive information to – cannot clear a security clearance, it seems to me that the first thing you do is ask why?" McCaskill told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "Then, you want to get all the information, and you want to see the FBI file, and you want to get them in for an interrogation about it. Why did none of that happen?"

Porter, who submitted his resignation after both his ex-wives took their accusations public against him, had a "stellar resume and his public profile that looks like he would never do anything wrong," McCaskill said.

The senator also discussed the upcoming debate over immigration, pointing out the Senate enjoyed a "silver lining" when discussing the budget bill, as for the first time she could remember since President Barack Obama was elected, the "middle muscled up" and there were 25 moderates in a room, Democrats and Republicans, and they hammered out a bill.

"We are also continuing to work every day of trying to come up with a bill that we can all support that goes a little further than some in the Democratic Party want to go and doesn't go quite as far as some of the Republican Party want to go," McCaskill said. "I am hopeful that through the amendment process we can cross out what proposals will net more than 60 votes, and that we can come with a bill at the end that would incorporate the things that the Senate has supported."

If that happens, "we would have big enough number voting for it that would put extreme pressure on the White House and then [House Speaker] Paul Ryan," she added.

Meanwhile, she believes support for Dreamers will decline if the "wheels of government" came to a complete halt.

"It reminds me a little bit of the Iraq war," she said. "It sounded like it was a good idea to go into the situation but nobody had a good plan on how we got out of it."

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