the opposite way of someone who had nothing to hide. this new york times report was followed by a similar account with other publications like nbc news, t the washington pos post , fox news, together these accounts lay out a picture of a president looking for any way to hobble this russia probe from firing mueller to firing the man overseeing mueller, rod rosenstein, who was of course appointed by donald trump. now one thing we have not heard from the white house is a specific denial. the reporter who broke the related story this week of a threatened resignation by another person, donald trump s fbi director said today the lack of any denial is remarkable. this is absurd, let s just remember that, you have the president saying it s fake news and no one else in the white house denying it. that s insane. insane and in a moment i ll speak with nick ackerman and barbara mcquaid.
agencies wrflt i think we need to recognize another important fact. we have a deep interest in what aspects of the dossier are accurate but this is a very small part of a very big investigation. and i think there s an effort by the gop to say, the whole investigation hangs on this one thread of evidence. that s not true at all. copy. the other big thing going on, as you well know, is this constant barrage of allegations coming out about roy moore. and i don t know why it would link back to what we are here to talk to you about which is russia. then you have senator mcconnell raising the prospect of this, the attorney general who is recused from overseeing mueller. the name being most often discussed may not be available. totally well known and extremely popular.
what became clear this week is that there is an easier and at least a shorter path for the president. quicker way to do it would be for him to just put someone new instead of rod rosenstein in charge of overseeing the mueller investigation. he may love jeff sessions, but if he fires or quits, trump could appoint a new a.g. who would not be recused from the russia investigation, who would not be recused from overseeing mueller, and then that new attorney general would be appointed to replace jeff sessions could fire bob mueller.
justice department employees is to the constitution and the country, and not to the president personally. so rod rosenstein answered questions on the capitol hill apparently shortly after this meeting, and said he had never been asked for a loyalty pledge. perhaps he interpreted this differently. but given the entire course of conduct, it looks inappropriate, it looks like a president who should have known better, but couldn t help himself from trying to run the country like a business and not like a democratic form of government. and betsy, i want to get to some of your reporting on the memo as well. but first your reaction to this report breaking tonight that even after all was said and done and exposed, this report tonight breaking that the president pushed and prodded the man overseeing mueller, rosenstein, to find out if he was, quote, on
was, quote, on my team. this report also says trump wanted to ghost write republicans questions and pressure on to rosenstein, who is overseeing mueller. this reportedly came recently in a december meeting at the white house, as rosenstein was preparing to testify before congress. trump also wanted to know where the special counsel s russia investigation was heading. that is obviously a no-no. the report says that rosenstein answered, well, of course we re all on your team, mr. president. and sources say he suggested those questions to the members of congress, specifically during the hearing of the house judiciary committee. ultimately rosenstein was asked this. is it ever proper that a director take a loyalty pledge.