There is another disturbing report alleging that, despite all of the damage caused by President Donald Trump allegedly asking former FBI Director for a pledge of loyalty, he asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein whether he was “on my team” before Rosenstein testified before Congress. Notably, in the hearing, Rosenstein was asked “Is it ever appropriate for a president of the United States to demand a Department of Justice official or FBI director to take a loyalty pledge?” He replied “I don’t have any opinion about that. Nobody has asked me to take a loyalty pledge other than the oath of office.”
If true (and we have not heard from the White House), it was particularly concerning because the alleged encounter occurred during a January 2017 meeting. After all of the controversy over inappropriate comments and queries, it would be incredible to ask someone like Rosenstein if he would be a loyal team member when he is investigating allegations of obstruction and inappropriate pressure by the President (including alleged demands for express loyalty statements). Rosenstein is widely viewed as an apolitical civil servant.
Rosenstein’s denial before the Committee would not be facially false since since this reported statement was not a direct demand for a “loyalty pledge.” However, if it was said, it clearly was meant to elicit a statement of loyalty. According to news reports, Rosenstein responded obliquely along the lines that everyone is on the same team.
Again the most concerning element is the date. With the Mueller investigation and congressional investigation focusing on improper contacts and pressures, it would be unthinkable to ask such a question of someone like Rosenstein — who after all appointed Mueller. This follows an account of Trump asking the acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe how he voted for in the presidential election.
As someone who has continued to question the evidence of obstruction, such accounts are personally quite baffling. It is not simply that a question like this to Rosenstein would never have elicited the desired response. It was a question to the man who is supervising Mueller in looking at any effort to obstruct or interfere with the investigation.
Once again, I would be relieved if this story is false, but it likely to be a new line of inquiry in the continuing investigation.
The “are you on my team” question may, in some circumstances, be seen as a threat. But not necessarily. I can see that a leader may want to see how a person answers it just to get a take on the person’s attitude towards him. I’ll bet Trump gets all kinds of answers to it, and doesn’t fire someone just because it may not show 100% support. Trump may not like that answer, but may just want to remember it for when he has to trust that person with something important. By itself, it shouldn’t define a president as “fit” or “unfit” for office.
The “Deep State” Feminazi Gaystapo ordered Reichsführer Rosenstein to appoint Obergruppenführer Mueller to destroy the duly elected President Trump through impeachment, not only for ideological purposes but also to misdirect Americans and shield the entire Obama governmental structure. The Obergruppenführer Mueller “Russia Investigation” is illegal, illegitimate and totally corrupt. Reichsführer Rosenstein did not have “…evidence of a crime and articulable facts” when he appointed the special prosecutor.
The shadow government coup d’etat in America will fail and…
all roads lead to Obama.
He repeated it on the next thread up. See my reply there.
Your reply wasn’t worth it the first time.
All I could come up with last night.
OK, David try and get a good night’s sleep tonight and let’s see what you can come up with tomorrow. 🙂
Once you’re a Fake you’re a Fake all the way, from your first waking moment to your last dying day…
— with apologies to Stephen Sondheim
If anybody has not signed their loyalty oath, then don’t be surprised if you get a knock on your door late one night. Better be safe then sorry, put out those Putin for President 2020 signs now and avoid the rush.
Well, if that’s who the Democrats want to run against President Trump, then they just might need some door knockers. I would expect nothing less.
Thomas Sowell has a good take on how President Trump speaks:
Candidate Trump, and now President Trump, made a clean break from this 20th-century tradition by speaking to Americans and the world in a plain-spoken, homey and at times explicit manner free of the spit-and-polish that all democracies have come to expect of their politicians.
Frank Bruni, the New York Times columnist and no friend of the president, termed him a radically honest politician in some ways. Bruni observes there is more transparency into the president’s beliefs and ideas, and his thought processes —however wrong or misled he might be — than there has been for any previous president in recent memory.
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/how-trump-retooling-politics-21st-century?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=10050944&utm_content=newsletter(10050944)&utm_term=newsletter
So when President Trump refers to loyalty or team, what does that mean in Trumpspeak?
Wien Holder said he was Obama’s “Wingman” no one seemed to care.
https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico44/2013/04/eric-holder-im-still-the-presidents-wingman-160861
Or perhaps the concern was that there were repeated attempts at a soft coup using governmental agencies such as the FBI. Perhaps that was concerning, that the FBI and NSA were acting to defraud voters.
If true, Trump should have said, are you unbiased? Was he asking if he supports the President or was he part of the Resistance? Personally, I think the better question was, does he support the Constitution.
Reblogged this on The Inquiring Mind and commented:
This gets murkier by the hour
Trump should have done like Obama and only appointed, promotes and hired people he KNEW were on his team.That way you don’t have to ask.
T rump only knew crooks and mob attorneys. Hard to get em confirmed so he had to turn to ordinary republicans like Rosenstein and Wray.
The President was rightly elected, now the Clinton and Obama stay-behind teams are undoing the elections.
This is the sort of thing Operation Gladio was doing in Italy disrupting elections there which were likely to produce the “wrong” results of electing communists. The US couldn’t abide that, and interfered.
Now, in an ironic twist, the American “Deep State” is undermining its own elections. The democratic primary challenger got screwed by Clinton, who had the DNC in her pocket, and the winning republican candidate is still getting screwed by her agents. Like Sztrock or whatever his name is, and many others.
Bad karma come home to roost. The Democrats should stop trying to get Trump by any means necessary and help clean up the system!
So, once you’re elected, you can do anything you want – whether it’s illegal or not? And no one can question what you do?