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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPeople Are Out to Undermine President Trump
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/09/rod-rosenstein-wire-trump-joking.htmlPeople Are Out to Undermine President Trump
As they should be.
By William Saletan
Sept 21, 20188:03 PM
Everyones out to get the president. Thats the outcry from Donald Trumps supporters after the New York Times reported Friday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein once talked about wearing a wire and/or invoking the 25th Amendment to stop Trump. In a tweet about the Times story, Donald Trump Jr. scoffed: No one is shocked that these guys would do anything in their power to undermine @realdonaldtrump.
The Times story has provoked follow-ups from other publications suggesting that Rosenstein was joking about the wire. But Trumps loyalists are right about one thing: The people around Trump are trying to thwart him. Thats why weve seen so many leaks about senior officials calling Trump a moron, an idiot, and a child. Its why nobody can pin down which senior official wrote the anonymous Times op-ed about a resistance inside the administration: There are too many suspects to eliminate. The Rosenstein story adds to the pattern. But the pattern isnt that all these people are disloyal. The pattern is that theyve all come to recognize how awful Trump is.
Bob Woodwards new book, Fear, details the extent of the contempt for Trump among his aides. Chief of staff John Kelly, Defense Secretary James Mattis, economic adviser Gary Cohn, and lawyer John Dowd are quoted calling Trump unhinged, a sixth-grader, and an idiot. (Dowd and Cohn left Trump world in March and April, respectively.) The book describes maneuvers by numerous officials to evade or thwart Trumps orders. Woodward calls it an administrative coup detat.
The Times story, which relies heavily on memos written by former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, paints a similar picture of Rosenstein. When Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey in 2017, he portrayed Rosenstein as a seasoned ally with sound arguments for the dismissal. But the Times story says Rosenstein wasnt on board. He was caught off guard when Mr. Trump cited the memo in the firing, and he began telling people that he feared he had been used, says the Times.
Trump portrayed Comey as a loner, liar, and traitor. But the Times story presents evidence that Rosenstein trusted Comey, not Trump. In one meeting, Rosenstein said that he wished Mr. Comey were still at the FBI, according to the article. Rosenstein also wanted to ask Comey for advice on appointing a special counsel to take up the Russia investigation. Meanwhile, Rosenstein wondered whether Mr. Trump had motives beyond Mr. Comeys treatment of [Hillary] Clinton for ousting him.
Rosenstein didnt keep these thoughts to himself. He shared them in meetings and conversations with other Justice Department and FBI officials, says the Times. In a meeting with at least five other officials, he groused about Trumps unseriousness and the administrations disarray. The article also says Rosenstein talked with other officials about invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, apparently based on mental unfitness. Theres dispute about whether Rosenstein was serious or joking when he talked about wearing a wire to record the president. But the Times says he talked about it in at least two meetings.
In the Times story, some officials who spoke to the paperits not clear whether these officials were present or merely saw McCabes memosreportedly describe Rosensteins musings as erratic. But if the colleagues with whom Rosenstein spoke about these things at the time had shared that view, they would have leaked his comments. They didnt. And that, in turn, suggests that Rosenstein may have felt free to talk this way because the officials around him largely agreed.
Nor was this distrust of the president confined to the Justice Department. According to the Times, while Rosenstein was writing his memo about Comey, White House aides were trying to stop Trump from firing the FBI director. The article also reports that Rosenstein told colleagues he might be able to persuade Attorney General Jeff Sessions and [Kelly] to mount an effort to invoke the 25th Amendment. That effort never materialized, says the Times. But what could have given Rosenstein the idea that Kelly and Sessions might go along? Recall the words of the anonymous op-ed: early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment. Rosenstein wasnt in the Cabinet. Somebody else was doing the whispering.
Parts of the Times story remain to be adjudicated. Theres a pitched battle, in particular, over the context and seriousness of the comment about wearing a wire. But other anecdotes in the story havent been disputed, and together, they point to the same bottom line: Rosenstein didnt trust Trump. Nor do other people in the administration. It isnt because these people dont appreciate who Trump really is. Its because they do. So if you want to restore loyalty to the president, you wont achieve that by getting rid of Rosenstein. Youll have to get rid of Trump.
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People Are Out to Undermine President Trump (Original Post)
babylonsister
Sep 2018
OP
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,686 posts)1. Damn right we are.
He needs to be undermined and put out of business before things are fucked beyond salvation.
marble falls
(57,081 posts)2. Me, too. Fuck the mope.
tavernier
(12,388 posts)3. Sign me up.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,972 posts)4. He's doing a pretty good job undermining himself
With his own incompetence.
Nevilledog
(51,101 posts)5. Why is no one talking about McCabe's motive to lie in his memo?
McCabe no doubt feels he was burned by Rosenstein when he wasn't protected. No one else at the meeting thought Rosenstein was in any way serious.
So Trump is relying on a story from a newspaper he says is failing/fake news......
relying upon reports of a memo from McCabe who trump said was corrupt.
This shit makes my eye twitch.
stopbush
(24,396 posts)6. I have never understood why and how "the people elected tRump" is offered
as a rationale that the nation needs to stick with that decision until 2020. The Constitution itself provides two outs to rectify a bad decision made by the people.
dalton99a
(81,485 posts)7. Good Americans are trying to defend our nation.