President Trump slammed the ‘bad ones’ in the Justice Department following reports Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wanted to wear a wire to secretly record the president.
Speaking to a fired-up crowd at a rally in Missouri, he said there was a ‘lingering stench’ in Justice ‘and we’re going to get rid of that’.
He was in Springfield supporting Republican Senate nominee Josh Hawley.
The audience also broke out in chants of ‘Kavanaugh’ as the Supreme Court nominee faces sexual assault allegations.
Trump defended his choice for the bench, saying: ‘You talk about central casting, he was born for the U.S. Supreme Court. And it’s going to happen.’
President Trump slammed the ‘bad ones’ in the Justice Department following reports Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wanted to wear a wire to secretly record the president
Rosenstein suggested last year that he should make covert audio recordings of President Trump in order to build a case for removing him from office, according to a New York Times report.
Rosenstein disputed that account on Friday, and a Justice Department official who was reportedly in the room when Rosenstein talked about using the 25th Amendment to end the Trump presidency says he was being sarcastic.
The 25th Amendment allows for a majority of the president’s cabinet, or ‘such other body as Congress may by law provide,’ to decide if an Oval Office occupant is unable to carry out his duties – and then to put it to a full congressional vote.
That account agrees with a Fox News report based on sources who were in the room and said the meeting took place May 16, 2017.
The Washington Post, too, cited a source who said Rosenstein’s comment was biting but unserious.
It’s his second rally in as many nights.
Speaking to a fired-up crowd at a rally, he said there was a ‘lingering stench’ in Justice ‘and we’re going to get rid of that
Trump opened by telling the cheering crowd of thousands in Springfield that ‘our country is respected again.’
He says that’s because ‘we are finally putting America first.’
The president is in Missouri to campaign for state attorney general Josh Hawley, who is challenging incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill. Trump has been campaigning aggressively to help the Senate expand its narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate.
Trump campaigned in Las Vegas on Thursday night to help Sen. Dean Heller, the only Republican seeking re-election in a state that Democrat Hillary Clinton won in 2016.
Trump opened by telling the cheering crowd of thousands in Springfield that ‘our country is respected again’
He says that the respect has been building because ‘we are finally putting America first’
Rosenstein (pictured in July) suggested last year that he should make covert audio recordings of President Trump in order to build a case for removing him from office, according to a New York Times report
Rosenstein (pictured with Trump in May) disputed that account on Friday, and a Justice Department official who was reportedly in the room when Rosenstein talked about using the 25th Amendment to end the Trump presidency says he was being sarcastic
On Friday, Fox also reported that then-Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and FBI lawyer Lisa Page were in the room when Rosenstein raised the subject.
Page had been half of the infamous texting romantic-affair couple who mused in 2016 about how to ‘stop’ Trump from becoming president.
An Obama-era Justice Department spokesman suggested Friday afternoon that McCabe leaked the story to the Times.
‘Dangerous game Andy McCabe is playing right now,’ Matthew Miller tweeted.
Ari Fleischer, who was White House press secretary during the George W. Bush administration, lashed out separately at McCabe.
‘This story reads like Andy McCabe trying to burn down the house he once lived in,’ he tweeted.
‘Looks to me like McCabe is trying to get revenge on those he used to work with, after they challenged his honesty and fired him.’
McCabe is himself facing a federal probe over allegations that he misled investigators about the sources of press leaks; Attorney General Jeff Sessions terminated his employment this year, just days before he was scheduled to retire with a full pension.
In the Post’s telling, McCabe had proposed opening an investigation into the president after the firing of FBI Director James Comey.
‘What do you want to do, Andy, wire the president?’ Rosenstein chided him, according to one source.