Trump Disses Rod Rosenstein: ‘He’s From Baltimore’

Rod Rosenstein Image by Getty Images

By Nathan Guttman July 20, 2017

Rod Rosenstein was lifted from relative obscurity to serve as the nation’s No. 2 law enforcement authority. When he wound up in charge of the Russia investigation, a clear consensus emerged among his former colleagues and co-workers: Rosenstein, they stressed, is as apolitical as they come.

But President Trump says there’s little doubt about Rosenstein’s political leanings.

“He’s from Baltimore,” Trump told the New York Times in a Wednesday interview, arguing that Attorney General Jeff Sessions knew little about Rosenstein before offering him the job.

“There are very few Republicans in Baltimore, if any,” Trump said. “So, he’s from Baltimore.”

Trump got that last point right. In the 2016 elections, only 10% of the city of Baltimore residents voted for Trump. In the entire state of Maryland, the Trump-Pence ticket got only a third of the votes.

Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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