Rosenstein Embodies the GOP Surrender to Trump

Jonathan Chait: “The most bizarre passage in Rod Rosenstein’s letter to President Trump resigning his post as deputy attorney general is praise for ‘the courtesy and humor you often display in our personal conversations.’ It is not standard practice for the president to have personal conversations with the deputy attorney general at all, certainly not when that person is supervising an investigation into the president himself. And while we cannot know the substance of those personal conversations, we do know that Rosenstein was once so alarmed by Trump’s behavior that he discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to have him removed on account of mental unfitness.”

“Maybe Trump’s private conversations somehow contain the humor that is completely lacking in his public persona, which consist of boasts, lies, and belittling attacks. Trump’s public treatment of Rosenstein included tweeting an image of him behind bars along with other alleged traitors. That Trump, what a jokester.”