This is one of the most pathetic defenses ever.
The White House is desperately flailing to defend Trump's indefensible reaction to the Rob Porter domestic abuse scandal, including the odd premise that Trump has too many abusive friends to keep track of.
Trump dragged his White House back off message when he proclaimed the innocence of, and lamented the lack of "due process" for, ousted senior staffer Rob Porter, who has been accused of photographically-verified instances of spousal abuse.
Trump budget director Mick Mulvaney was among the White House mouthpieces appearing on the Sunday news shows to do damage control.
It did not go well.
Speaking to Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday," Mulvaney first tried to suggest that the administration acted quickly when it learned of the photographic proof, despite the fact that press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was still defending Porter even as she read a statement referencing those photos on Wednesday afternoon.
But Mulvaney then made an more absurd claim that Trump's tweet about "due process" could have been about anybody, really.
Wallace pressed Mulvaney, noting that even after Porter resigned, Trump "still has not said anything about zero-tolerance. He still hasn't mentioned that the lives of the two women who were the subjects of abuse, that those lives have been shattered too."
Mulvaney responded that Trump's tweet "can be applied to a bunch of different people. When I saw the tweet, I had wondered if he was talking about his friend Steve Wynn.
Mulvaney also described the tweet as evincing "a certain sadness that somebody that he liked had let him down."
The defense that Trump knows too many abusers to keep track of is an odd one to begin with, but it also serves to remind everyone that Trump and his party still have not denounced former Republican National Committee finance chair Steve Wynn over the sexual misconduct allegations that have been leveled against him, even though he has now resigned in disgrace.
And nothing in Trump's tweets or public statements on the Porter scandal indicates that Trump feels "let down" by anyone but the women who have accused him.
Trump does not care about these women, and the fact that his minions can't even come up with a convincing lie to the contrary only serves to make that even more painfully obvious.
