Remember that bit about Rod Rosenstein wondering if he should wear a wire to the White House?
I used to wonder what he thought he would catch the President saying – or doing – and what he thought whatever it was would make possible.
I still wonder about that last part. What exactly did Rosenstein think he could accomplish? What could he have had in mind.
Then I started reading Michael Lewis’s The Fifth Risk, and the first five pages told me exactly what it might have accomplished. Could even Mitch McConnell support a tantrum like this one, if made public? Because does anybody believe this was the last one? Or even the worst?
The first time (nominee) Donald Trump paid attention to any of [Chris Christie’s Transition Team] was when he read about it in the newspaper. The story revealed that [the team] had raised several million dollars to pay the staff. The moment he saw it, Trump called Steve Bannon, the chief executive of his campaign, from his office, on the twenty-sixth floor of Trump Tower, and told him to come immediately to his residence, many floors above. Bannon stepped off the elevator to find the governor of New Jersey seated on a sofa, being hollered at. Trump was apoplectic, actually yelling, "You’re stealing my money! You’re stealing my fucking money! What the fuck is this?”
At this point, Bannon and Christie tried to explain to Trump that it was federal law that nominees for the presidency “prepare to take control of the government.”
To which Trump replied, "Fuck the law. I don’t give a fuck about the law. I want my fucking money." Bannon and Christie tried to explain that Trump couldn’t have both his money and a transition.
“Shut it down," said Trump. Shut down the transition.”
Forget the Access Hollywood tape. Forget Rosenstein. If Christie had worn a wire, all we would have needed throughout the campaign would have been Trump on tape saying:
Fuck the law. I don’t give a fuck about the law. I want my fucking money.