Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

White supremacy is terrorism.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

He really is that stupid.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Republicans don’t trust women.

Second rate reporter says what?

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Everybody saw this coming.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

In my day, never was longer.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Rosenstein

Rosenstein

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104Comments

  8. 8.

    dmsilev

    Christ, it’s just one thing after another after another, isn’t it?

    I guess that’s one way to get Rapey McRapeyJudge out of the headlines for a day.

  11. 11.

    Major Major Major Major

    Guessing Rosenstein said he’s expecting to be fired. Possibly even there’s a resignation letter lying around, as many people have them prepared in advance. But they’re lying about him saying he’s resigning.

  12. 12.

    Cheryl Rofer

  18. 18.

    Corner Stone

    @schrodingers_cat: And to think they were thin-skinned and overly defensive about it last week. I wonder if any of them (NYT) will stick their noses out of their holes in the ground after this.

  22. 22.

    Skepticat

    I keep reminding myself that the Saturday Night Massacre, which this seems to be starting to resemble, led to Nixon’s downfall. Cross your paws.

  23. 23.

    Betty Cracker

    @Cheryl Rofer: In other words, a stooge. Honestly, I don’t completely trust anyone who remained a Republican after 2016, including Rosenstein and Mueller. But this guy sounds particularly bad.

  24. 24.

    Corner Stone

    Is there any god damned person in power in the federal govt who is *not* a member of the Federalist Society?

  28. 28.

    Corner Stone

    Armando
    ‏ @armandodkos
    9m9 minutes ago

    Armando Retweeted Manu Raju

    It’s in fact very clearly known. Francisco will do as Bork did- fire the Special Counsel. It’s a Monday Morning Massacre.

  29. 29.

    cmorenc

    Since when has Trump summoned any member of his Administration to a face-to-face meeting for the purpose of firing them? He has consistently done that indirectly, without speaking to the fired official himself – often via a press release. The infamous “Apprentice” “you’re fired” pseudo-reality TV star is chickenshit to acctually fire anyone for real face-to-face.

  30. 30.

    Immanentize

    I am not certain why the Solicitor General would take over the supervision of the Mueller investigation. Certainly that is not the line of command — or are people suggesting the SG will be appointed as the Deputy AG?

  34. 34.

    Betty Cracker

    Now The Post is saying Rosenstein resigned. They’re a lot more credible than Axios, which is the dregs of Politico.

    Correction: The Post said Rosenstein has offered to resign.

  39. 39.

    Elizabelle

    @cope: Fuck the Fucking New York Times confirmed it.

    WASHINGTON — Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, was expected on Monday to leave his job at the Justice Department, days after private discussions were revealed in which he talked about invoking the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office and secretly taping him to expose chaos in the administration.

    It was not immediately clear whether he expected to be fired by Mr. Trump or whether he planned to resign. Justice Department officials said on Monday morning that he was on his way to the White House expecting to be fired. But over the weekend, Mr. Rosenstein called a White House official and said he was considering quitting, and a person close to the White House said he was resigning.

  40. 40.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Additionally, the poll reveals that respondents show high support for restoring felon voting rights. When asked whether they would vote “yes” or “no” on a proposition to restore the voting rights of Floridians with felony convictions, 71 percent of likely voters claimed they would vote “yes” on the proposition, with 21 percent voting “no.” Only 8 percent didn’t know how they would vote. Regarding race, 82 percent of African-American respondents indicated they would vote “yes” on the amendment, while 69 percent of white respondents and 65 percent of Hispanic respondents claimed they would vote “yes” on the proposition.

    Woo hoo! Looks good for voting rights. Anti-voting rights people are a minority. They’re hugely powerful but they’re a numerical minority.

    We should put voting issues to referendum in every state that has an available process.

    I want Democrats to use “modernize”- package the rights together with rule changes that make voting more convenient and efficient. People love those- early vote, automatic registration- make their lives easier.

  42. 42.

    Fair Economist

    Firing Rosenstein *and* tripling down on Kavanaugh? Mueller must have filed an indictment which threatens the Republican party, like an indictment of McConnell or something like that.

  43. 43.

    patrick II

    Congratulations to the New York Times on an story based on anonymous sources that were not at the meeting. Second hand gossip recounted not over the back yard fence but by well dressed well payed people who call themselves reporters and are used to spread distortions if not outright lies is the way to run a country.
    I might add that I don’t care if Rosenstein was talking about the 25th Amendment or listening in on the President. He was having a meeting at the front end of an investigation into Russian manipulation of the election to elect Trump president. I have attended meetings like that, just not for that reason. We called them “Blue Sky” meetings and people were supposed to put forward ideas, most of which are dismissed. But it is important to get every plausible idea out there — and then pick a few and dismiss the rest. They were doing their job.
    And, this is important — because someone has an opinion does not mean he is prejudiced. At the time of the meeting the FBI knew more than we still know today about Trump and the Russians, and Trump’s obstruction of justice and Comey. They were not prejudiced because their intentions were based on facts, not unchangeable emotional reactions not based on facts. That would be prejudice. You know, like Donald thinking anyone from a shit country is not worthy of becoming a citizen.
    Fact based reasoning is not prejudice, and members of the FBI’s who’s knowledge of the Trump teams interactions with Russians were not prejudiced, but acting on facts and doing their jobs.
    So I wish the NYTimes, the talking heads on TV, even those on MSNBC, would stop implying that if Rosenstein said those things he was being prejudiced. He was doing his job.

    And congratulations to the New York Times for once again being the paper of record for betraying your country with a false narrative. Hundreds of Email stories and now rumors about Blue Sky meetings. Wonderful work over the last couple of years guys. Too bad the country has to suffer.

  44. 44.

    Elizabelle

    Here is how those goatfuckers at the FTF NY Times headlined their work:

    Rod Rosenstein is expected to leave the Justice Dept. after The Times revealed he discussed the president’s removal. He oversees Robert Mueller.

    And that is helping our democracy HOW? Emails, emails, emails.

  46. 46.

    Elizabelle

    @Fair Economist:

    Firing Rosenstein *and* tripling down on Kavanaugh? Mueller must have filed an indictment which threatens the Republican party, like an indictment of McConnell or something like that.

    Oooh. Maybe. I hope we learn, soonest.

  47. 47.

    Aleta

    I hope this may mean that Trump Jr or Kushner are/were soon to be indicted. Surely it means Mueller is very close to the rotten core?

    As Nicole said this morning,

    Nicole
    September 24, 2018 at 9:50 am
    I think they are desperate to get someone seated who will say a President can’t be indicted. This is all about dismantling the rule of law.

  50. 50.

    Bruce K

    It’s like they’re clearing the decks for a goddamned fascist takeover in Washington.

    How the hell did it come to this?

  55. 55.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    Dang, all this breaking news and me about to leave for a day trip to the wilderness with my mother. Wonder if we should just take my RWNJ brother’s survival gear and plan on staying out there until civilization collapses and the post-apocalyptic hellscape stabilizes a bit.

  56. 56.

    randy khan

    I guess this is supposed to be a distraction from the Kavanaugh stuff. Or maybe it’s the other way around. I’m not sure.

  58. 58.

    Elizabelle

    The WaPost has a long story on this. Putting it up so you can read it too.

    Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein has told White House officials he is willing to resign in the wake of revelations he once suggested secretly recording the president, but it’s unclear if the resignation has been accepted, according to people familiar with the matter.

    One Justice Department official said Rosenstein was on his way to the White House Monday and is preparing to be fired.

    Rosenstein had been overseeing the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is probing Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether any Trump associates conspired with those efforts. It wasn’t immediately clear what Rosenstein’s departure might mean for that investigation, or who now would oversee it, though that role could naturally fall to Solicitor General Noel Francisco.

    One Trump adviser said the president has not been pressuring Rosenstein to leave the job, but his resignation had been a topic of private discussions all weekend. The person said Rosenstein had expressed to others that he should resign because he “felt very compromised” and was now a potential witness in the Russia probe rather than a supervisor, according to a person close to Trump.

    Rosenstein has been the target of Trump’s public ire and private threats for months, but uncertainty about his future deepened, following the revelation Friday that memos written by former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe said that in May 2017, Rosenstein suggested secretly recording the president and trying to muster support for invoking the 25th amendment to replace Trump.

    McCabe memorialized discussions he had with Rosenstein and other senior officials in the stress-packed days immediately following James B. Comey’s firing as FBI director. At that moment, the FBI was deeply suspicious of Rosenstein’s role in the decision, and the Justice Department was worried it had lost credibility with Congress for giving Trump a memo that said the FBI needed new leadership.

    Others involved in those May 2017 discussions said Rosenstein’s comments about secretly recording the president were sarcastic, and came as McCabe was pressing the Justice Department to open an investigation into the president over the firing of Comey as possible obstruction of justice.

    In statements Friday, Rosenstein denied he ever seriously contemplated secretly recording the president or pursuing the 25th amendment replacement of a sitting president, as was first reported by the New York Times.

    “The New York Times’s story is inaccurate and factually incorrect,” Rosenstein said. “I will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal agenda. But let me be clear about this: Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment.”

    In a second statement hours later, Rosenstein said: “I never pursued or authorized recording the president and any suggestion that I have ever advocated for the removal of the President is absolutely false,” he said.

    For more than a year, Trump’s public and private comments about the Russia probe have led to speculation and concern that Rosenstein could be fired.

    Rosenstein, a Republican and career Justice Department official who had served under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, came into office on a wave of bipartisan support, but Comey was fired soon after and he was immediately drawn into fierce partisan battles surrounding the Russia probe.

    Rosenstein became deputy attorney general in April 2017, and assumed oversight of Mueller’s probe after Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who failed to disclose to Congress that he had met during the 2016 election campaign with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, recused himself from the investigation involving the 2016 election.

    Just days into his job as the No. 2 official at Justice, Rosenstein authored a memo criticizing Comey’s handling of the earlier investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server for government work.

    The White House used Rosenstein’s memo to justify Comey’s firing. Days later, Rosenstein appointed Muller and the special counsel has since been examining the firing of Comey and whether it was part of a pattern of behavior that amounts to obstruction of justice by the president.

    Rosenstein’s decisions, including the renewal of a warrant to surveil a former Trump campaign adviser, have prompted furious Twitter outbursts from the president. “I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director!” he has written.

    Trump has repeatedly dismissed the Mueller probe as a “witch hunt” designed to delegitimize his election victory and undermine his presidency.

    Some of the president’s most outspoken supporters have railed against Rosenstein with Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.), at one point, describing the deputy attorney general and other former Justice Department officials as “traitors to our nation.”

    Democrats and many Republicans have warned Trump against any attempt to assume control of or shut down Mueller’s investigation, either by firing Rosenstein to appoint a pliable successor, or dismissing Mueller directly. And they have said the president risks sparking a constitutional crisis if he tries to derail the special counsel investigation.

    “I’d like to make something crystal clear to the president. Mr. President, any attempt to remove Rod Rosenstein will create the exact same constitutional crisis as if you fired Special Counsel Mueller,” majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said earlier this year. “Don’t do it, do not go down this path. For the sake of our country, we plead with you. Don’t put this country through a constitutional crisis.”

    Story has a link entitled this. Hmmm. [How removal under the 25th amendment works: A beginner’s guide]

  59. 59.

    MoxieM

    @Corner Stone: Hmmm. I thought that’s been the long-term goal of TFS? To entrench themselves–members & minions I realize it may be a rhetorical questions, though.

    Is it a grim morning, a 3 cups of espresso morning, or the beginning (again) of the collapse of the house of dirty cards? I now think we won’t know until after the general election, and heaven help up until then.

  65. 65.

    bemused

    @cmorenc:

    Is trump actually there? Listening to msnbc from another room, I thought I heard trump was elsewhere which would be his usual chickenshit routine.

  67. 67.

    jimmiraybob

    If he verbally resigned in person at the White House by by phone wouldn’t like 5 or 10 or several dozen people have recordings to back up their upcoming books?

  69. 69.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Saw that poll this morning! It’s such good news because ballot initiatives require a 60% majority, and it looks like even 60% of Republicans favor it, which is astounding.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    @Bruce K:

    It’s like they’re clearing the decks for a goddamned fascist takeover in Washington.

    This is almost ludicrous “glass half full” but look at the bright side. They’re scared to death they’re going to be voted out of power. That still scares them. We still have that. They think they’re going to lose Congress so they’re doubling down on executive power. They don’t have that much time. I think they don’t have enough time.

  74. 74.

    TaMara (HFG)

    Well, we know from experience Toadstool isn’t going to fire him personally, so who gets the short straw? Kelly? Surely he knows the implications if he’s fired. Politically.

  75. 75.

    Mike in DC

    Shutting down the investigation all but guarantees weeks of bad stories during the month of October. Because you free up the dozens of people working the investigation to leak to the media.

  76. 76.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    They passed on the second allegation against Kavanaugh and instead went with the “let’s get rid of the prosecutor” story.

    If it were up to them no one would ever know about the second allegation – “everyone” knew about the second one, except the public. A decision was made to keep that from us- apparently we’re unable to judge the credibility of the allegation without the NYTimes guiding us. Mayer put it all in there- the doubts, the hazy memory. She did’t present it as rock-solid. She left that up to us. The NYTimes decided we couldn’t handle that.

  78. 78.

    Brachiator

    I was mainly off the Internets all weekend.

    Now this is the first thing I see when I check into Balloon Juice. Damn.

    Trump has been gunning for Rosenstein for a long time. He openly seeks to remove anyone in his administration who criticizes him or who fails to execute his … whims … expeditiously. He is fairly single-minded in this.

  84. 84.

    SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal

    @JPL:

    And Wednesday, he’s chairing the Security Council.

    …

    Wait, that doesn’t even make sense.

  85. 85.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    There was never any reason to deny them the vote. It was always indefensible, unless you’re Andrew Sullivan – a petty anti-democratic authoritarian. A life sentence barring civic participation as part of the punishment for a felony? Come on. It’s draconian and mean-spirited.

    70% agree :)

  86. 86.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Bruce K:

    It’s like they’re clearing the decks for a goddamned fascist takeover in Washington.

    Easy there, as others have said Pinochet didn’t take the weekend off after his coupe.

  87. 87.

    jimmiraybob

    @Bruce K:

    It’s like they’re clearing the decks for a goddamned fascist takeover in Washington.

    What do you mean “like.” Though, historically, fascism has had many faces, there are root identifiers that pretty strongly support the idea that we’re on the brink. To name a few: a strict obedience to authoritarian rule and unyielding loyalty to an authoritarian strong man (even, maybe especially, if he’s an immoral sociopath), an evil enemy that must be destroyed (liberals/liberalism/modernity), and a systematic program of discrediting and disassembling established democratic norms. He’s won the transactional Christian-right over, which has preceded some pretty bleack tyrannies of the past.

  91. 91.

    Marcopolo

    To all you BJers in NYC if Rosenstein gets fired in the next hour or so feel free to take the rest of the day off, find out where the protest is happening—hopefully somewhere totally inconvenient for Trump—and go join it. I’ll be there in spirit.

  92. 92.

    Mike in DC

    @Karen: No. That would require whomever succeeds RR to overtly or covertly shut things down, and there would be a separate, larger political firestorm in any event. Mueller can farm out related matters to other US attorneys in NY, VA, DC etc. Shutting down the Mueller investigation after the midterms would virtually guarantee impeachment hearings next year. At which Mueller would be the star witness.

  95. 95.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @jimmiraybob: Authoritarianism varies by society, remember Spain, Italy, Germany and Russia weren’t traditional democracies so they saw democracy as imposed by outsiders. The example for authoritarianism in the US is Woodrow Wilson – democracy for white protestants and everyone else faces a lynch mob if they speak out, and boy howdy, that sounds like Evangelical agenda

  96. 96.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Maybe it’s the optomist in me, but it’s not impossible Rosenstein is calling Trump’s bluff. Rosenstein gets called to an odd meeting, deliberately says to his staff this is it, he’s fired, his staff leaks to the press and Trump gets it shoved in his idiot face this what what will happen if Trump tries this.

    Suppose we will see.

  99. 99.

    Mike in DC

    @Aleta: If you remove him as Special Counsel, the investigation continues. If you shut down the investigation–which is extremely difficult since there are outstanding indictments–you free up all the prosecutors and investigators, and some sort of report vis a vis the president would still be expected, since that was the original purpose of the investigation. It’s not that easy to just shut everything down and seal all the information away forever.

  100. 100.

    montanareddog

    It has been said that if Kavanaugh is seated, then Roe v Wade will not be explicitly overturned but will be gutted with procedural obstacles because the GrOPers are not stupid about the optics of this.

    It could be that, if Rosenstein does go, whoever replaces him could take the same approach to the Special Counsel’s investigation. Mueller, who appears to be an institutionalist, would find it difficult to go public with, for example, the information that his new boss refusing to authorise indictments of other associates of DOTUS.

  102. 102.

    jimmiraybob

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    …democracy for white protestants and everyone else faces a lynch mob if they speak out

    There’s always been a reactionary response to the liberal Enlightenment notions baked in during the founding. There’s a very strong and entrenched dominionist movement that seems to have been infiltrating more traditional churches for a couple of decades with a strong tendency to want to rule over society. Overall, reactionary conservative Christians, mostly Protestant from what I can make out, seem to comprise the Trump Evangelicals, or as a more liberal Evangelical historian has framed them, the Court Evangelicals. Their goal is an authoritarian Christian state. If not a total theocracy, as in ruled by the priests, at least a government that rules by Biblical, mostly Old testament, fire and brimstone. Which is another way of saying ruled by very cranky Protestant white males. It would be interesting to see the Catholic response (of course, a lot of this has already played out in America, such as the battle as to whose Bible to use in the public schools. (Hint: It wasn’t the secular atheist heathens that got the Bible out of public schools.).

  103. 103.

    Miss Bianca

    @jimmiraybob:

    It would be interesting to see the Catholic response

    Surely it hasn’t escaped your notice that a lot of these Federalist Society bastards also happen to be Catholic? Lot of Catholics out there supporting Christianist authoritarianism, and they seem perfectly happy to shack up with evangelical Protestantism to do it. Catholics have come a long way towards getting accepted into the WASP-Only-Super-Seekrit Ruling Society, since the days when John F. Kennedy had to deny that he would be getting his marching orders from Rome.

  104. 104.

    jimmiraybob

    @Miss Bianca:

    It’s like the dog catching the car, If Christianist authoritarianism is achieved what would they do with it? American power-Evangelicals/Protestants assume it will be them running the show. American Catholics likely have a different vision. Lots of theological and historical baggage. I’m not aware of a successful historical power-sharing arrangement.

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