Trump Delays Rosenstein Chat: Doesn’t Want To ‘Interfere With’ Senate Hearing

US President Donald Trump arrives to a press conference on September 26, 2018, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP)        (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump arrives to a press conference on September 26, 2018, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP) (Photo credit should re... US President Donald Trump arrives to a press conference on September 26, 2018, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP) (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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President Trump has officially delayed the meeting he’d planned to hold with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Thursday. The White House said the pair made this decision out of deference to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing regarding sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh.

“They do not want to do anything to interfere with the hearing,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.

Trump had suggested at a Wednesday press conference that he might postpone the conversation with Rosenstein for this reason. Though he dismissed sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh as a “con job” manufactured by Democrats, Trump said he wanted to assess Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony himself.

During the freewheeling presser, Trump also said that he would prefer to keep Rosenstein in his position, calling him a “very nice” man.

That response came as a surprise given the uproar that ensued following reports that Rosenstein last year suggested trying to produce evidence of Trump’s erratic behavior to force him from office. Trump called the reports “very sad,” but noted that Rosenstein denied trying to invoke the 25th Amendment or to secretly record him.

Rosenstein himself reportedly believed he was going to be fired on Monday. Reports circulated that he’d offered his resignation.

But decisions about Rosenstein’s job were repeatedly postponed until he could sit down for an in-person meeting with Trump once the President returned from New York, where he was meeting with foreign leaders at the UN, on Thursday.

Rosenstein and Trump now plan to meet next week, according to the statement released by Sanders.

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