White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to offer assurances that the special counsel investigation into Russian election meddling would continue if the man overseeing it, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, leaves. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images white house Sanders won't say whether Trump plans to fire Rosenstein

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to say Tuesday whether President Donald Trump has confidence in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the man overseeing the special counsel’s Russia investigation, or whether the president plans to fire Rosenstein when he comes to the White House for a meeting later this week.

Sanders, who was interviewed on ABC's "Good Morning America," said she didn’t want to get ahead of Trump, who is scheduled to meet Rosenstein on Thursday to discuss a New York Times story published last week. In that article, the Times reported that Rosenstein had discussed secretly recording the president and invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.


Rosenstein, who has disputed the Times' reporting, reportedly went to the White House on Monday with the expectation that he would be be fired or asked to resign. Sanders said Trump and Rosenstein spoke on the phone Monday and that both men wanted "to have a conversation like that in person."

“Does the president have confidence in Mr. Rosenstein?” ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Sanders.

“The president has confidence in the system,” the press secretary answered, to which Stephanopoulos replied, “that’s not what I asked.”





"I'm not going to get ahead of the conversation that's going to take place," Sanders continued. "Certainly, he wants things to take place. There have been a number of incidents that have caused a great deal of concern, not just to the president, but to Americans all over the country."

Trump has sparred often with the Department of Justice since taking office. On Friday, he told attendees at a rally in Missouri that he plans to get rid of a “lingering stench“ at the department. Multiple Republican senators have hinted that they believe the president is likely to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions, another target of frequent criticism from Trump, after November's midterm elections.

In her "Good Morning America" interview, Sanders declined to offer assurances that Trump would allow special counsel Robert Mueller to complete his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections if Rosenstein is fired or resigns, telling Stephanopoulos that she didn’t want to “get ahead of” the president.

