that. so i am definitely against piling on, no matter what definition you use. there he is being kind of cheeky there, ashley. what s the relationship right now between the president and rod rosenstein? yesterday he said he refused to say whether or not he had confidence in him. but is it rosenstein that s between a rock and a hard place? or is the president as well? because despite those numbers we just read in the cbs poll, there still is a majority of meerns, including a majority of republicans, according to another set of polling, that say that they don t want the president to fire mueller. they want him to finish this investigation. that s exactly right. i would say everyone is between a rock and a hard place here. there are no good outcomes. you have rod rosenstein who is sort of fighting for his political survival, trying to find a middle ground, trying to buy, it seems, mueller some time to finish his investigation. and you have the president who has made very clear what
election. this has been such a shameful moment for the united states government. his associates have been blown. investigations that he s worked on, not just this investigation but others, some of which could still be ongoing are blown. what s really important now is the fbi and justice department hold firm in this meeting with congress even though the damage has already been done for any of his operations. he s already been exposed. it is important that they not officially turn that name over because then they could never again look an informant in the eye, say we will go to the mat to keep your name secret, we will not turn you over to anyone no matter the pressure. it is really critical to their ability to work with informants around the world but isn t it already damaged? it s already out there. it s already damaged. i think you have to look at the difference between the damage that s been done to him and his associates and investigations he was involved with. yes, it s alrea
to people around the world but if they actually take the step of turning it over, unless they are directly ordered by the president of the united states as an order they cannot refuse i think would be a big mistake for them. a constitutional law professor, jonathan turley, made this point there is legitimate reason for the president to ask for this investigation. he wants the doj to investigate the investigation and the doj has said they re going to appoint or allow the ig to do it. this is what turley points out. foreign intelligence surveillance act application, the fisa application, was based, at least in part, on a dossier that was paid, at least in part, for by the clinton campaign. key justice department officials expressed hostile views of trump in e-mails and text messages. peter strzok. do you think jonathan turley has a point that the president, at the very least, is allowed to
investigation is politically driven. and 44% believe mueller s probe is legitimate. those are striking numbers. does the president does this white house believe that they are winning this messaging war? they do. and that s why the president is doubling down on this strategy. we have seen the polling numbers consistently over the past several months with people losing confidence in robert mueller and his investigation, not just president trump s base, but first it was republicans more broadly were really beginning to question robert mueller, think that this was drawn out. then you have the wider public seems to be slowly following suit. at the very best, the public is confused. they don t understand what s going on. it is a lot of noise and the president s messaging is adding to that. so he sees this as political insurance, if you will, no matter what comes out of this investigation. if he and his allies have done a good enough job in really
discrediting this investigation, and even asserting that it is criminal in nature, something bad going on, then that s going to help him fight and discredit whatever finding comes out at the end. rod rosenstein is going to be with the president today at this roundtable in bethpage, new york, talking about ms-13. rod rosenstein was also at another meeting where news cameras were allowed this morning. i think it was a bloomberg event. here s a little aside he had. take a listen. when i announced this new policy here in new york a few weeks ago, i explained that the term piling on refers to a football player jump being on a pile of other football players. but last night, i learned that the mirial webster dictionary uses a different meaning. the dictionary defines piling on as joining other people in criticizing someone, usually in an unfair manner. i also have experience with