not to follow our process and policies, but in my view, those are precisely the times that we need to adhere to them the most. we have got to stay faithful to our best traditions, and our core values, making sure we re not doing the right thing, but doing it in the right way and pursuing the facts independently and objectively no matter who likes it. that in my view is the only way we can maintain the trust and credibility of the people we serve. mr. chairman, and members of the committee, thank you again for the opportunity to address inspector general s report. i look forward to answering the committee s questions. thank you, director wray. we ll proceed under the five-minute rule with questions. i ll recognize the gentleman from florida, mr. desantis. welcome to the witnesses. mr. rosenstein, august 8th, 2016, text message in the ig report from lisa page to peter strzok. trump s not ever going to become president, right? right? peter strzok responds no, no,
with this change in the balance of power, this, of course, there is a lot of at stake with this retirement. and the list, the president said yesterday i m going to choose my next nominee from the short list that his team put out before gorsuch was nominated. who stands out jessica on that list? the president talks about this list. he said 25 people but we have at the top of that list two former justice kennedy clerks. you see the first one there, d.c. circuit court judge brett kavanaugh and also in the middle there, raymond kethledge. then of course at the end there s thomas hardiman. he was interviewed by the president as a runner up to the newest justice neil gorsuch. the second woman there, amy coney bar ret as well as amalthapar they ve already been named to lower court seats. republican mike lee the senator from utah, all of these possible
it is rod rosenstein. he s shown that over the past year. manu, thank you for the reporting. we ll get back to you when this gets under way. we ll take you to wisconsin, protests are under way outside of an event for president trump there. we ll take you there live. what does justice anthony kennedy s retirement mean for key issues like abortion, the death penalty, gay rights and affirmative action? a lot. we ll take a closer look ahead. can you love wearing powerful sunscreen? yes! neutrogena® ultra sheer. unbeatable protection helps prevent early skin aging and skin cancer with a clean feel. the best for your skin. ultra sheer®. neutrogena®.
white house because bill shine and sean hannity are old friends and they go back a long time. in fact, bill shine was sean hannity s producer for quite a while before he rose in the ranks at fox news. they have attended dinners together with president trump. and this appointment, it might not be surprising to us anymore, because we know how much president trump loves fox news, but just think about the number of fox news people that are involved in this administration right now. we have everything from the state department spokeswoman, heather nauer, josh bolten, a major role in foreign affairs at the white house currently, kt mcfarland stepped down, but there is an influence of the network in the white house. we know the president talks to the hosts all the time. look at his twitter account. he s constantly tweeting about watching their shows, and now this just further cements that connection between a network and a white house and while media going to politics and going back and forth
nomination that president trump made, neil gorsuch, it was a strong nomination. that at the end of the day was a defensive pick. it was replacing justice scalia, one of the greatest justices ever to serve on the supreme court. what the gorsuch pick did at the very best is maintain the status quo. the justice kennedy vacancy, on the other hand, is an opportunity to really have a profound impact on the court, an impact on the court that could last for decades. i think there s no issue more important, no issue more fundamental to what president trump has achieved, to what the senate majority of republicans has achieved than nominating and confirming principled constitutionalists to the supreme court and the federal courts that will uphold or rights and protect the bill of rights. dana: i remember when chief justice rehnquist passed away. liberals weren t too concerned about president george w. bush