would be as significant ads it would be absent this report. that s what this development does. i would expect it sooner than the election. i would expect it to be immediate, not that i m a pra e prognosticat prognosticator, but it fits into the president s narrative of this being a witch hunt. errol, what s your take on rosenstein saying i will not comment no further on this report, and then commenting further saying that he never pursued the recording or removing the president via the 25th? sure. i think he tried to tamp it down by saying, look, i have no comment. on the other hand, as i would have expected him to understand by now, the word of the new york times is taken seriously. they re reporting although it doesn t although it doesn t amount to rock-solid proof that things were said, but as the white house responds and other
hours after the report came out at a rally in missouri, the president vowed to eradicate the, as he described it, lingering stench at the justice department and fbi. he did not call on rosenstein by name, but it would not be the first time the president has criticized the deputy attorney general. in part one, gloria borger looks back at the role of rod rosenstein and his relationship with the president while at the justice department. reporter: if the president is your boss, this is not what you want to hear when asked if he ll fire you you figure that out. reporter: trump dissing his own deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, for whomevery day can be a near - whom every day be can a near fatal experience. he became the man in charge once the attorney general recused himself. so he s the one who hired the
center at fbi headquarters reporter: visitors center? the visitors center indicating you ve been fired. they said, there s something else, there s something attached, a lengthy explanation from the deputy attorney general laying out a case against you. reporter: was he surprised at rosenstein? he was very surprised at rosenstein. not that they were chummy or friends or you would know what to expect because none of this was telegraphed. do you think he knew that it was going to be used by the president as the rationale publicly for firing james comey? well, i think he had to know it was going to be used in some degree. i don t think that he realized that the president was going to put greyhound bus tracks on his back with that memo. i don t think he realized it was going to be used in that way. my memo truthfully reflects my views. i m not in position to comment on anybody else. from my perspective, senator, that memo is about what it s about. i do not know what was in a
and it s a disgraceful situation. reporter: tenuous for rod rosenstein. no one is above the law, even president. reporter: obama appointee sally yates is a former deputy attorney general fired by trump last year. a president can t fire a prosecutor because he s mad that he authorized a search of his attorney s home and office. he can be mad about it as long as he s not trying to influence his conduct. reporter: at a meeting with the president, rosenstein volunteered that the cohen raid did not put the president in legal jeopardy, but the president remained furious. i m very disappointed in my justice department. but because of the fact that it s going on and i think you ll understand this i have decided that i won t be involved. i may change my mind at some point because what s going on is a disgrace. i believe that attorney general sessions, my good friend, and rosenstein, who i
we have to fight for him. not worry about the other side. and by the way, women are for that more than anybody would understand. about that, errol lewis, political commentator and commentator for spectrum news, and analyst and attorney joey jackson with us again. we have the looming deadline, 2:30 this afternoon. i want to get back to that. first, your reaction, errol, to what the heard from the president. is he just riffing here? who are the women who are already ready to fight for brett kavanaugh before we ve heard ford testify in a potential hearing? right. the president and republicans supporting him in congress are in a tough place because there aren t a lot of women out there. everyone that they can find they get to sign a document or push in front of the cameras. there was talk about having outside counsel, women attorneys to do the questioning because they know how awful all of this is going to look.