For several hours today, Donald Trump confused the crap out of the media and Americans over mixed reports that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was leaving the Trump administration. Some reports insisted that Rosenstein was being fired and others stated that he was resigning, and there didn’t seem to be a clear answer. That’s because there wasn’t — it looks like Trump actually planted this leak himself in an effort to distract everyone from the fact that his Supreme Court Justice nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, is being accused of sexual assault by even more women.
Vanity Fair’s Gabe Sherman reported that over the weekend, Trump had considered that firing Rosenstein could be a way to take attention off of Kavanaugh’s scandals and get him out of the headlines for a few hours. One source told Sherman:
The strategy was to try and do something really big.”
While Rosenstein is still in the administration, Trump and the deputy AG have a meeting set up for Thursday. Coincidentally, that’s also the same day Christine Blasey Ford, the first woman to accuse Kavanaugh, will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee — likely another attempt to distract everyone. Sherman wrote that the White House’s leak “certainly had the desired effect of driving Kavanaugh out of the news for a few hours.”
Sherman also reported that despite Trump’s continued defense of Kavanaugh, the president is thinking about nixing him due to what allies are telling him. Trump is currently being warned that conservative voters may not turn out for midterm elections if Kavanaugh goes down in flames – and if that happens, the Democrats will have majority and perhaps make moves to impeach him. A source close to the president said:
Trump is finally waking up… that it’s the end of his presidency if he loses the Senate.”
Featured image via screen capture
