Says he’d ‘prefer not’ to fire Justice No. 2 Rosenstein
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would “certainly prefer not” to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and that he may delay a highly anticipated meeting with the Justice Department’s No. 2 official.
At a wide-rangingpress conference Wednesday in New Yorky, Trump said that he may delay the meeting slated for Thursday because he did not want to siphon attention from a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
News organizations had reported earlier this week that Rosenstein might be fired after a New York Times report said the Justice official had discussed possibly secretly recording the president and using the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.
But Trump said Rosenstein had denied the story and he now was not sure what he would do.
“I would much prefer keeping Rod Rosenstein,” Trump said. “He said he did not say it. He said he does not believe that. He said he has a lot of respect for me, and he was very nice and we’ll see.
“I may call Rod tonight or tomorrow and ask for a little bit of a delay to the meeting, because I don’t want to do anything that gets in the way of this very important Supreme Court pick,” Trump said.
The Justice Department referred questions about the scheduling of the meeting to the White House.
Rosenstein is overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and his dismissal would put that probe in jeopardy and create a political storm.
Aides reportedly have advised Trump against taking any extreme actions ahead of the midterm elections with his party’s majorities in Congress already under threat.
Rosenstein appointed Mueller in May 2017, oversees his work and has repeatedly defended the breadth and scope of the probe. Trump has been critical of Rosenstein’s oversight of the probe, but the two have at times displayed a warm working relationship, and Rosenstein has been spared some of the more personal and antagonistic broadsides leveled against Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Even if Rosenstein survives the week, it’s not clear how much longer he’ll be around. Trump has signaled that he may fire Sessions after the midterms, and Rosenstein could go with him.
During Wednesday’s press conference, Trump made frequent references to “fake news” — which he said accounted for news reports that the United Nations General Assembly laughed after he said his administration had done more in less than two years than any administration in history.
“They weren’t laughing at me.
They were laughing with me.” Trump asserted. “We had a good time.”
Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or at 202-662-7391. Follow @ Debrajsaunders on Twitter. The Associated Press contributed to this report.