Rosenstein: The Gist of it

[suffragette]

Let me see if I have this right.

So, Trump’s Admin Trolls concocted a story about Rosenstein that was designed to pressure him to resign. They then fed it to a news organization detested by Trump, probably figuring ‘hey, bonus’ if the story was questioned and the NYT was called out for printing ‘fake news.’

The right wing press dutifully amplified the noise from the story in the attempt to up the pressure on Rosenstein to leave.

Rosenstein calmly denied the report.

Trump’s Admin Trolls then made up a follow-up story that Rosenstein succumbed to the pressure and, resigned because he feared being fired (with an inference of feeling guilty about actions accused of in NYT story).

Again, Rosenstein calmly denied the report.

Except, Rosenstein is clearly not fearful and quite strong and none of the above actions ascribed to him actually took place, except in the fevered imagination of the Trump Admin Trolls.

Do I have this right?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I have no idea what the hell is going on but that's as good an explanation as any.

[suffragette]

18. When you have people who detest governance running the government, you get a big mess.

Crazy times.

[GoCubsGo]

2. Yes. That sounds pretty accurate. nt

[C_U_L8R]

3. Trump is acting like a cornered criminal

because that's exactly what he is.

[malaise]

6. Well!

That is all

[NewJeffCT]

12. I wonder what will happen

when we get Roger Stone indicted, followed by Don Jr and/or Jared Kushner? And, then one of them flips on Don Sr?

[suffragette]

21. Yes. Grasping at anything to save his criminal ass.

[unblock]

4. "designed to pressure him to resign"? not sure how anything was meant to do that.

i think they might have thought it could provide cover for firing him.
i think they might have thought it could pressure senators to vote for kavanaugh by reminding them they need a stooge on the court.

but i'm not sure how they would think that it would pressure rosenstein into resigning.
well, they're idiots, so who knows.
but... target of investigation doesn't like the investigator... so what? how is that supposed to make him resign?

[suffragette]

10. By twisting a sarcastic comment supposedly made by Rosenstein about taping Trump into an action he

was proposing.

They thought it was a gotcha moment. And yes, cover for firing him, or if believed, to put pressure on him to resign. They may have even thought the stories in the news about Omarosa taping Trump and others possibly doing the same might give more credibility to this. But it wasn’t believable at all and like so much else from this crew, they fumbled the whole thing.

[unblock]

14. but a gotcha of what? so what if he was seriously talking about wearing a wire to talk to donnie?

a prosecutor wearing a wire isn't something surprising or anything they should think to quit over.

exposing that he may have been thinking about wearing a wire to record *someone who is under investigation* isn't anything a prosecutor should think to quit over.





i think it's only a "gotcha" moment for the people who have an "us vs. them" mentality, it reveals he's not on donnie's side.

for the people who place loyalty to donnie above loyalty to country, this is a big deal. but to the real world, it's not.

[suffragette]

22. I agree completely with you. That's why the whole thing has an imaginary vibe, because it was

concocted by those who have an “us vs them” mentality and who are loyal to Trump above all. And they are thinking how they might react rather than how a genuine civil servant might behave.

[TlalocW]

5. Now someone explain to me in simple terms

Why is Rosenstein important? I'm having trouble keeping track of all the players.

TlalocW

[lagomorph777]

15. Rosenstein is Mueller's boss; a right-wing successor could shut down Mueller.

[unblock]

16. he's the only person who can really fire mueller and/or stop the investigation.

sessions has recused himself from russia matters, so he can't do it.

donnie can't do it legally, at least not directly, though he can fire attorneys general and deputy attorneys general until he finds one who will shut down the investigation.

that's basically what nixon did in the "saturday night massacre", his last major desperate attempt to stop the watergate investigation shortly before he was forced to resign.

[bluescribbler]

25. Unfortunately,

in 1974 there were Republican Senators and Congresscrittrers who actually gave a s
shit about rule of law and the Constitution. I see no evidence that there any now.

[unblock]

26. it's certainly hard to see it, but the ugly truth is that

we'd actually be in an even worse mess if there weren't *some* republicans holding him back somehow.

if he thought he could get away with it, he certainly would have fired mueller a long time ago. some republicans somewhere talked him out of that. almost surely they convinced him he would have to get impeached and removed, meaning that more than a dozen republican senators would have to abandon him if he did that.

i know, low bar, and they're keeping it quiet, but it actually could be even worse than it is...

[Fred Sanders]

7. There is also the strange and actually innocent coincidence that Sessions was scheduled to

meet with Kelly today, regular thing, but Rosenstein went because Sessions unavailable, for some reason not yet unearthed.

The world works in mysterious ways and even faster than social media sometimes.

[Nevilledog]

13. Spot on.

[suffragette]

17. I didn't know that. Very interesting.

[Fred Sanders]

19. OK, have to admit it is on the Fox website, but since that does not help the narrative for them

I think it is accurate without checking any more.

[happy feet]

8. Bingo!

I just cancelled my NYT digital subscription. They gave me an offer to continue but I said ENOUGH!! Will keep my WaPo subscription.

[Fred Sanders]

20. Baby out with bath water?

[erronis]

27. I wonder that also. And could this be a way to get subscribers to leave that FAILING NYT?

Just watched Active Measures last night. Wouldn't put anything beyond any of them.

[GeorgeGist]

9. MSM can't resist...

S Q U I R R E L

[mcar]

11. and media is now acting like Rosenstein

just got a reprieve until his meet with Dotard on Thursday. "Will he hold on to his job?" they breathlessly report.

They won't admit they got played.

[Different Drummer]

23. Don't know exactly what happened, but the scenario in the OP sounds plausible. n/t

[jmbar2]

24. You forgot the NYT anonymous OpEd just days before

Wonder if that was just testing the NYT, or pump priming.

[D23MIURG23]

28. The New York Times should have known better.

This creates a problem even if it is bullshit. With all the shit this fucking rag has pulled in the last 20 years - Judith Miller, fabricated Iraq war stories, Bill fucking Kristol on the editorial staff - I really think they should change their name to the "Empire State Enquirer". Its a name better suited to a journalistic enterprise of their "caliber".