“Fox & Friends” hosts hammered White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah Tuesday over the recent resignation of Rob Porter and asked if the White House has looked into changing their clearance process.
“Well again, the FBI background check process is one, that again the FBI runs and we are a part of,” Shah said on Fox News. “It is operated throughout the federal government. It goes across agencies. And it’s been used from previous administrations and will be used in future administrations. If any changes need to be made, we’ll look at that, but, you know this is a process that we trust.”
Host Brian Kilmeade cut Shah off and asked if the White House had changed any of it’s clearance processes due to the backlash from Porter.
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“Did you change anything,” Kilmeade asked. “You relied upon it and you got burned because you had two-time accused domestic abuser there at a very sensitive position, where perhaps he shouldn’t have been had that been fully exposed. So what changes now?”
“I appreciate that point, but we also need to look at the process and how it’s worked on historically,” Shah replied. “If changes need to be made we’ll look at that and review the processes. But right now we do trust the process. It has been used time and again for decades to protect our national security. And we trust the FBI in these processes.”
Host Steve Doocy said there are rumors of an FBI employee sharing their concern about Porter with the White House and asked Shah if he knew who that person was.
“That is not accurate. The FBI would not give a background check investigation directly to senior White House officials. It goes to a security office where then it’s relayed, maybe up the chain, maybe not,” Shah concluded. “But what we know about Rob Porter specifically and that’s the incident that everybody’s talking about, is that his background check investigation had not been completed yet. It was still, in the investigative process and had yet to be adjudicated. So prior to an adjudication, the White House is not going to step into the middle of a process and short-circuit it. These investigations are complex. They’re lengthy for a reason. We need to get it right.”
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