Rosenstein Statement News Today

You are a communications guy. that rosenstein statement, talk about a tough spot, was notable for what it did not say. the nixon era phrase nondenial denial with a tip to ben bradlee does come to mind. >> it denied a bunch of things that were not alleged. what andy mccabe said in his interview today and what "the new york times" reported a couple of months ago was not that rod rosenstein was authorized to wear wires or that he believes today the 25th amendment was appropriate. it was he discusse...

That they would be made to go away. >> thats exactly right. >> dana bash is cnns chief political correspondent and james gagliano is a retired fbi supervisory agent and a law enforcement analyst. let me just start with you, dana. lets talk about all of these different pieces. cnn first reported this 25th amendment conversation back in september. and youll recall, at the time, and again today, deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, denied the reports. hes denying it again today, that there was ...

Former fbi agent now fired for lying to fbi invey in washingto, for perjury andrew mccabe said it was serious. james baker, general councils of the fbi who was just told the house committee he believed rosenstein statement was serious was not in the room when it was said. his source is probably andrew mccabe. what did he say? we dont know what he said but congressman meadows said he, baker, contradicted what rosenstein has said under oath. lying to a congressional committee as a basis for firing...

Washington. jonah goldberg, senior editor at national review. a.b. stoddard, associate editor at real clear politics. katie pavlich, townhall.com. jonah, this seemed to pick up steam and was fueled by the presidents tweet about this. the fact that the inspector general is taking it, what does it tell us? >> tells us theres credible reason to take a harder look at what was going on in 2016 in terms of the investigation of the trump campaign. at the same time, i think the talk about this guy, as f...

Official in frontan an anonymous source. and i think its really interesting and this point has been made before that this administration is talking about anonymous sources and casting doubt on anonymous sources when it is a tool that they use repeatedly at the white house and elsewhere in the administration when speaking to reporters. >> and with a government communication, frankly, we shouldnt be forced to wonder what the reference to country is in a department of justice statement. it should b...

The alleged sources are supposedly affiliated. americans should be skeptical about anonymous allegations. the department of justice has a long-established policy to neither confirm nor deny such allegations. michael, you are going to get the first crack at this. again, the theorizing tonight on social media ranged from is this a cry for help by the number two guy at justice, or has doj been hacked? >> well, its an extraordinary statement, brian, its kind of trumpian in its tone, which is not wha...

Big deal? >> because this is a sanctioned bank. he would have no legitimate reason for meeting with this banker, sanked by obama administration. even more shocking is that he would have this meeting and not disclose it publicly. then when asked about it, the russian bank and jared kushner had two different answers and two different reasons for having meeting. kushner said it was about administrative decision possibly related to syria. the banker said no, this had to do with personal financialish...

We had never seen. obviously people should be cautious with anonymous sources. vivian, you cover this crowd. and michael went there. it sounded to a lot of people, the statement did, like it was somehow dictated. >> i mean there is no real way to tell if it was dictated or to the. but there has definitely been a major pushback by the administration, rod rosenstein not being unique here in terms of trying to push back against any of these stories that are making allegations against the administra...

Rosenstein statement and thought the fix was in, thought it might be a hoax of some sort. >> its really kind of bizarre. the really sort of off key part of that tweet is not knowing what country the officials are from. >> yeah. >> you know, as if we are writing about rwandan officials or something like that or using them as anonymous sources about the white house. that was kind of odd. i dont quite know what to make of it, frankly. it is vaguely trumpian. it came from rosenstein, would rosenstei...

>> well, its an extraordinary statement, brian, its kind of trumpian in its tone, which is not what you would expect from high levels of the justice department. very political. very combative. doesnt have that sort of lawyerly cool we associate with the justice department. and i would say in substance, brian, you know, this is a recurring theme that these stories that have anonymous or background quotes in enemy quoting officials sources should be treated skeptically. but in americas top news ou...