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Image copyright Reuters Image caption White House Chief of Staff John Kelly (L) said he was "shocked" by the allegations against Rob Porter (R) 
  
 The White House has expressed regret over its handling of domestic abuse allegations against a top aide. 
  
 Rob Porter, 40, quit on Wednesday as he denied two ex-wives' claims of physical and emotional abuse. 
  
 "We all could have done better over the last few hours, or last few days, in dealing with this situation," said deputy press secretary Raj Shah. 
  
 He told reporters Mr Porter, who was gatekeeper to the president, had been given an interim security clearance. 
  
 The White House staff secretary had yet to receive full security clearance because his background check was ongoing, said Mr Shah during Thursday's daily press briefing. 
  
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption 'We all could have done better' a White House spokesman said of physical abuse claims 
  
 The president's chief of staff, John Kelly, is facing questions about when he knew of the allegations against Mr Porter. 
  
 The claims surfaced during FBI background check interviews with Mr Porter's ex-wives. 
  
 Mr Shah said the chief of staff only "became fully aware about these allegations" on Wednesday when photographs of an ex-wife with a black eye emerged. 
  
 Mr Kelly issued a statement late on Wednesday saying he was "shocked by the new allegations" against Mr Porter, referring to the black eye. 
  
 Image copyright Colbie Holderness Image caption Colbie Holderness alleged Mr Porter punched her in the face on holiday in Florence, Italy 
  
 "There is no place for domestic violence in our society," he said. 
  
 Mr Kelly had previously defended Mr Porter as "a man of true integrity and honour". 
  
 US media report that Mr Kelly and other White House officials were aware for several months of the domestic abuse accusations because they were holding up Mr Porter's security clearance application. 
  
 Mr Shah said President Donald Trump "was surprised by it. He was disheartened by it. He was saddened by it." 
  
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Rob Porter, pictured holding the document for President Trump, was accused of abuse by his two ex-wives 
  
 "He, like many of us, did not see that in Rob Porter." 
  
 Announcing his resignation on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Porter said "these outrageous allegations are simply false". 
  
 "I have been transparent and truthful about these vile claims, but I will not further engage publicly with a co-ordinated smear campaign," he added. 
  
 His ex-wives, Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby, both recounted stories of his alleged misconduct. 
  
 Image copyright bornebackceaselessly Image caption Jennifer Willoughby told the Daily Mail she filed a protective order against Mr Porter 
  
 His first spouse, Ms Holderness, said Mr Porter had kicked her on their 2003 honeymoon in the Canary Islands. 
  
 The US government analyst also alleged he punched her in the face while they were on holiday a couple of years later in Florence, Italy. 
  
 Ms Willoughby, a motivational speaker, told US media she was married to Mr Porter from 2009-13. 
  
 She wrote about her experiences in a blog post entitled Why I Stayed. 
  
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Porter (L), White House chief economic adviser Gary Cohn (2nd L) and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders 
  
 Ms Willoughby said she filed a protective order against him in June 2010 after he allegedly punched the glass of the door at their Alexandria, Virginia, home. 
  
 She told the Washington Post: "He has never faced repercussions that forced him to confront his issues." 
  
 A third woman who says she was Mr Porter's girlfriend contacted his ex-wives with allegations of "repeated abuse", according to CNN. 
  
 The unnamed woman was reportedly seeking advice on how to leave Mr Porter. 
  
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Porter has been romantically linked with White House communications director Hope Hicks 
  
 "I work in politics, and despite Rob's repeated abuse, some of which I think many know about, he continues to rise and I'm afraid to go against him," the woman reportedly wrote to Ms Holderness in 2016. 
  
 Mr Porter attended Harvard with President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. 
  
 He formerly worked for Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, who said he was "heartbroken" by the allegations. 
  
 According to US media reports, Mr Porter has recently been romantically linked with White House communications director Hope Hicks. 
  
 She was reportedly involved in drafting the initial White House statement about Mr Porter on Tuesday. ||||| Ivanka Trump, John Kelly, and Jared Kushner look on as Donald Trump delivers remarks to reporters before a Cabinet meeting at the White House, January 10, 2018. 
  
 A day after White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter resigned amid allegations he physically abused his ex-wives, the Trump administration is still struggling to contain the fallout. The question of who knew what, and when, is being hotly debated in the West Wing. Chief of Staff John Kelly, whose relationship with Trump has been strained in recent weeks, is taking the lion’s share of the blame, as I reported yesterday. On Wednesday night, Donald Trump vented to advisers that Kelly had not fully briefed him on Porter’s issues with women until recently, two sources told me. Trump was also not aware of the severity of the alleged abuse until yesterday, when Ivanka walked into the Oval Office and showed her father a photo published in the Daily Mail of Porter’s ex-wife with a black eye. “He was fucking pissed,” said one Republican briefed on the conversation. According to a source, Ivanka and Jared Kushner have been discussing possible chief-of-staff replacements. The problem is there’s not an obvious candidate waiting in the wings. 
  
 West Wing staffers continue to wonder why Kelly would keep the Porter allegations from the president, and why he defended Porter so aggressively when presented with allegations by the Mail. Porter’s history with women had been known to Kelly for months, a source familiar with the matter said. (Porter has been working with a temporary security clearance because the allegations surfaced in an F.B.I. background interview.) According to a source, Kelly at first pushed back when White House officials wanted him to issue a second statement walking back his initial strong defense of Porter. Kelly ultimately wrote that he was “shocked by the new allegations.” 
  
 The crisis also raises questions about Hope Hicks’s decision-making, and whether her romantic relationship with Porter clouded her judgment. According to a source, Hicks did not get a sign off from Trump for the White House’s initial statement defending Porter, in which Kelly was quoted calling Porter a “man of true integrity.” She drafted the statement with her close friend, Kushner’s White House spokesman Josh Raffel, whom she’s known since their days working for Manhattan P.R. strategist Matthew Hiltzik. This morning, Hicks continued to defend Porter in private, a source said, telling people she thinks the allegations aren’t true. In recent weeks, Trump has been angry at Hicks for her role in approving interviews with Michael Wolff, a Republican close to the White House told me. (The White House did not respond to requests for comment.) 
  
 There is a sense that the Porter situation may finally push Trump to move against Kelly, according to several Republicans close to the White House. Last night, a source said, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski called Trump and urged him to fire Kelly. 
  
 Hicks’s job, meanwhile, seems safe, even if the president is angry with her. As Trump’s gatekeeper, she’s one of the most powerful people in the White House, protected by Trump almost like a member of the Trump family. 
  
 This article has been updated. 
  
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– The White House apologized for its handling of Rob Porter in the wake of domestic violence allegations against him from two ex-wives—though it did little else to clear up the situation around the former staff secretary. "I think it’s fair to say we all could have done better over the last few hours—or the last few days—in dealing with this situation," the Washington Post quotes Raj Shah as saying during a press conference Thursday. The White House spokesperson said neither President Trump nor chief of staff John Kelly knew the "full nature" of the accusations against Porter until Wednesday, USA Today reports. According to the BBC, Shah says Trump "was surprised by it. He was disheartened by it. He was saddened by it." Meanwhile, one Republican source tells Vanity Fair the president "was fucking pissed" that Kelly hadn't explained the allegations against Porter to him. Shah remained vague about who in the White House knew about the allegations and when they knew about them. He noted Porter was on a temporary security clearance while a background investigation "was ongoing," so someone in the administration at least was aware of the allegations. But Shah wouldn't say why Porter was allowed to keep his position in the White House in the face of that. "We trust the background check process," he said. Shah said the White House was at first prepared to defend Porter against the allegations "based upon our experiences with him," but Kelly, in particular, changed his mind after seeing a photo of one of Porter's ex-wives with a black eye. Porter left the White House on Thursday despite earlier saying he would stay on until a successor was named.