White House chief of staff John Kelly shouldn’t step down in the face of criticism over his handling of domestic abuse accusations against senior aide Rob Porter, Rep. Ed Royce said Sunday.
In an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” the retiring California Republican said “the White House completely mishandled this whole Porter situation.”
“I don't think John Kelly should step down,” he said. “I think we're in a process now where the committee of jurisdiction here is doing an investigation of just this issue. And I think you wait until you get the facts and then you can move forward from that.”
Commenting on the record number of GOP lawmakers exiting Congress, Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, conceded that part of the reason is because relationships in Congress itself have changed.
“Part of the answer here, though, is for us to look at what we can do to change the fact that no longer do we really have the types of friendships across the aisle that we once had,” he said.
He also argued committee chairmanships should be term-limited.
“You know, I — I think we should look at maybe the length of our chairmanships,” he said. “But at the sametime, I think these term limits are probably good from the standpoint of bringing in new blood, new ideas. And so that's one of the things we weigh on the Republican side.”
Royce also took aim at threats from the conservative House Freedom Caucus to Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to get on board with a strict immigration plan.
“I’ve never supported these tactics,” Dent said. “Trying to sack your own quarterback is not a strategy, frankly, that — usually when you're working as a team is going to lead to success. Right? Threats — usually don't lead to success.”
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