‘How the hell was still he employed?’ GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy scalds White House over Rob Porter scandal

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) unloaded on the Trump White House's handling of the Rob Porter scandal during a CNN interview on Wednesday -- and he said he was disturbed by "almost every aspect" of it.

During an interview with CNN's Alisyn Camerota, Gowdy said he simply did not understand how Porter was allowed to keep his job at the White House for so long despite the fact that key members of the administration must have known about credible allegations of domestic abuse had been leveled against him.

"I spent two decades believing women and children who alleged abuse, even sometimes when no one else did," Gowdy said. "I have real questions about whether someone like this can be considered for employment, whether there's a security clearance issue or not. So yeah, I'm troubled by almost every aspect of this."

Camerota then pointed out to Gowdy that FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday testified under oath that his agency had given the White House a complete report on Porter's background months ago, and yet no one at the White House took action to remove him from his position. How, Camerota asked, could Porter have remained employed at the White House despite that?

"That's a good question and I don't know the answer," said Gowdy. "If you knew it in 2017 and the bureau briefed them three times, then how in the hell was still he employed? The security clearance is a separate issue -- it's an important issue, but separate. How do you have any job if you have credible allegations of domestic abuse? Again, I am biased towards the victims. I spent two decades believing them. But you don't have to be biased towards the victim to ask how in the hell did this happen?"

Watch the video below.