Trump Rants About ‘Weak’ Rod Rosenstein As Russia Noose Tightens — Brands Him ‘Democrat’

Rod Rosenstein Image by Getty Images

By Nathan Guttman December 18, 2017

President Trump spent hours in recent days following the latest developments in the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections. That included watching the House Judiciary Committee, where Republicans grilled deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein over what they saw as anti-Trump bias in the investigation.

The president, according to the Washington Post was not impressed with Rosenstein’s performance.

“Trump has called the (deputy) attorney general ‘weak,’ and complained that Rosenstein has shown insufficient accountability on the special counsel’s work,” the Post reported based on sources with knowledge of Trump’s private conversations. A senior official told the paper that Trump also mocked Rosenstein’s testimony, “saying he looked weak and unable to answer questions. Trump has ranted about Rosenstein as ‘a Democrat,’ one of these advisers said, and characterized him as a threat to his presidency.”

It is not clear how Trump reached the conclusion that Rosenstein is a Democrat. He was appointed U.S. attorney for the state of Maryland by President George W. Bush and maintained his job under Obama.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.