White House Press Rattled by Utica, NY Fire Chief Resignation

Reporters in the nation's capital were scrambling to move into breaking news mode on Tuesday night. Another member of President Trump's inner circle had resigned due to scandal and this one might be the biggest of all.

Quick, get me a satellite feed! Where's my camera operator?  I need make up! The President's Chief of Staff John Kelly has resigned and....wait a minute....oops, cancel that...it's a false alarm.

That's kind of how it went down for about 20 minutes in Washington after the trending news reporting service Dataminr sent out this alert: John Kelly is resigning after reports surfaced that he allegedly sent inappropriate text messages to a deputy fire chief's son.

One can only imagine the craziness that ensued? Former U.S. Marine General John Kelly, now the President's right hand man, was inappropriately texting some deputy fire chief's son in a place called Oneida County in Upstate New York? This could be the biggest fall from grace this administration has seen since Omarosa was dragged kicking and screaming off the White House lawn by Secret Service!

Fortunately, it all seemed odd enough to prompt reporters to pause for verification and ultimately better judgement prevailed. There's no evidence that any news outlet prematurely pulled the trigger on what President Trump would have almost certainly called 'more fake news from mainstream media' in a Tweet.

"For a minute, your story in Utica had everybody scrambling," Nobles told WIBX's First News with Keeler in the Morning on Wednesday.  The story, posted by Spectrum News, was actually about Utica, NY fire chief John Kelly, who resigned as chief after alleged text messages of a sexual nature surfaced on the Keeler Show involving another deputy chief's son.

In the end, all is well in Washington and reporters were able to go back to real issues like Russian collusion, family separation and North Korea. John Kelly, the one who is a firefighter in Upstate New York, will be demoted to deputy chief in July, a punishment (or lack thereof) by Utica Mayor Rob Palmieri that's sending shock waves through Utica and Oneida County.  Meanwhile, John Kelly, the decorated general, former secretary of Homeland Security and Chief of Staff at the White House is still safely employed by President Donald Trump...at least for now.