President Donald Trump postponed his highly-anticipated meeting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein until next week in an attempt to avoid conflicts with today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who has been accused of sexual assault by several women, and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, one of the women who accused Kavanaugh of assault at a high school party in 1982, both will testify today.
After spending most of this week declining to speculate on what Trump might do with Rosenstein, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that the president spoke with Rosenstein “a few minutes ago” and they rescheduled their meeting until next week.
“They do not want to do anything to interfere with the hearing” Sanders confirmed.
Rosenstein has been under fire since earlier this week when the New York Times reported that Rosenstein allegedly attempted to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office after then-FBI director James Comey was fired on May 9, 2017.
Rosenstein was put in charge of overseeing the Robert Mueller-led special council investigation after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the investigation.
The urgency of the meeting between the president and Rosenstein has been downplayed significantly from the fever pitch on Monday when it seemed imminent Rosenstein would lose his job, culminating with the president telling reporters Wednesday that he would prefer Rosenstein kept his job, according to the New York Times .
BREAKING: Trump postpones meeting with Rod Rosenstein, White House says they don’t want to `interfere’ with Kavanaugh hearing.
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 27, 2018
“My preference would be to keep (Rosenstein), and let him finish out,” Trump told reporters following a United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, referring to Rosenstein’s position heading the special council’s investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties with Russia.
Rosenstein has since denied the NYT report, calling the details of the story “inaccurate and factually incorrect.”
“I will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal agenda,” Rosenstein continued.
“But let me be clear about this: Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment.”
“He said he did not say it; he said he does not believe that. Nobody in this room believes it,” Trump said.
Although the president has seemingly expressed his support for Rosenstein, he was quick to attack the investigation, as per usual.
“You know, I’ve called it a witch-hunt,” President Trump told reporters. “And it is a witch-hunt.”
