Here’s a minor note on a day of major news. President Trump has no meeting with Rod Rosenstein listed on his schedule today. No big secret here. He said yesterday in his press conference that he might ask Rosenstein to postpone their meeting because of the big events on Capitol Hill. He also said he’d prefer to keep Rosenstein on and suggested he believed his denials of the details of The New York Times story that triggered this latest drama.
Needless to say, President Trump doesn’t need to convince anyone to keep Rosenstein in place. He’s the one driving this. I bring this up only to note that it is yet more evidence that Trump got rolled. Yesterday’s comments, today’s cancellation are only the latest signs that Trump got rolled and is now trying to moonwalk away from what was supposed to be his canning of Rosenstein.
I was speaking to a friend yesterday about this. I don’t know just want the hang-up was – that Rosenstein refused to resign, that he refused to go along with some Trumpian ritual humiliation, that he insisted on not being disparaged, etc. But it’s clear there was some hold up. The White House was certain Rosenstein was out. He wasn’t. Now it looks like he isn’t going anywhere, at least until after the election. There was some issue Rosenstein wouldn’t budget on and Trump backed down – like he usually does.
