President Donald Trump told reporters he has no plans to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein during a planned conversation with him Monday aboard Air Force One.
“I get along very well with him,” Trump told reporters of Rosenstein while departing for a trip to Florida, adding that he does not plan to fire him.
Rosenstein will join Trump as he travels to Orlando, Florida, to address a conference of the nation’s police chiefs. The deputy attorney general’s position became precarious in late September after alleged comments that he floated the idea of wearing a wire into the Oval Office and attempted to wrangle a cabal of cabinet officials to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.
Trump has put off any meeting with Rosenstein as the confirmation battle for Judge Brett Kavanaugh continued in the U.S. Senate. The president noted that Rosenstein called him after The New York Times story was published to deny the report. (RELATED: House Freedom Caucus To Rosenstein: Testify Or Resign)
Rosenstein and Trump have long had a tense relationship after the deputy attorney general appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to his position. Trump has attacked Rosenstein as a political actor, complicit in what he sees as “a witch hunt,” and for his failure to reign in Mueller’s investigation.