"The White House was already reeling from its botched handling of Trump’s decision last week to fire James Comey…"

And it was reeling from botched handling of the crises (plural) from the weeks before.

So this is the White House strategy it seems. After each Trumpian fiasco, you distract attention by creating an even greater fiasco in the following days. It's like some kind of pyramid scheme of diversion. And we know what eventually happens to pyramid schemers.