House Republicans tried to bully and bait Rod Rosenstein into saying something during his testimony that would give Trump the pretext he needs to fire him and kill the Russia investigation, bt the Deputy Attorney General would not take the bait.
Video of one Trump main Russia investigation killing stooges Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) coming after Rosenstein:
Transcript of one piece of the exchange:
Rep. Jordan: Why you won’t give us what we’ve asked for?
Rosenstein: I hope your colleagues are not under that impression. That’s not accurate, sir.
Jordan: It is accurate. We have caught you hiding information.
Jordan: It’s ridiculous.
Rosenstein: I am the deputy attorney general of the United States. I’m not the person doing the redacting. I’m responding to your concerns as I have. I have a team with me, sir. It’s a fraction of the team that’s doing this work. When I know, ever you brought issues to my attention I have taken appropriate steps to remedy them. Your statement that I’m keeping information —
Jordan: You’re the boss.
Rosenstein: That’s correct. My job is to make sure that we respond to your concerns.
Rosenstein: We have, sir.
Former deputy assistant attorney general Harry Litman explained on MSNBC that the entire point of the hearing was to get Rosenstein fired:
Litman said, “The DOJ has given much more than they would traditionally. This is the real witch hunt on capitol hill. There’s nothing here and they summon Rosenstein up to slap him in the face hoping he’ll hit back and they can use his hitting back as a pretext to firing him.”
It was almost comical to watch Trump’s House stooges do their best to provoke Rosenstein only to have the Deputy AG keep his cool and not give them anything that they could take to Trump and use as an excuse to fire him. The hearing was about pushing conspiracy theories that would to Rosenstein saying something that Trump could use as a reason to fire him, but Rosenstein wouldn’t give them anything.
Rod Rosenstein is in an impossible position. He is trying to protect an investigation that is vital to both US democracy and national security. Rosenstein is under constant attack from both the Executive and the Legislative branches of the government, so far he has weathered the storm. If he holds on through Election Day, and Democrats take back the House, he will finally have some protection so that Mueller can finish the most important investigation since Watergate.
For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.
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