Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is attempting to create a narrative for President Donald Trump to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, as long-time counselor Michael Cohen is laying the groundwork to turn on his long-time patron, a panel on MSNBC's Deadline: White House explained on Friday.
"In addition to the conventional wisdom that Cohen poses great jeopardy to Donald Trump, that's built on another conventional wisdom, which is Michael Cohen is guilty of a lot of things and he is almost certainly going to flip on Donald Trump," guest host John Heilemann analyzed.
"And this story that points to, hey, maybe I wouldn't take a bullet for Donald Trump, maybe Donald Trump is kind of a bad boss," he continued. "This is part of the narrative that is going to get us to the moment Michael Cohen turns on Donald Trump."
"How many times do you know people to say, 'I'll take a bullet' until somebody points a gun at them?" the Rev. Al Sharpton asked. "And now you're really looking at a real bullet."
"If The Times writes about how he was poorly treated, that's only the icing on the cake," Rev. Sharpton continued. "The cake is that he knows he can go to jail now -- for real."
"The Cohen raid was a huge moment that signified the entire forces of the Justice Department, Mueller's team and SDNY is being brought to bear on this case," conservative pundit Bill Kristol argued. "That's why I do think the possibility of firing Rosenstein soon is high, the possibility of pardons is high, and the possibility of all of this coming to a head is high."
The panel suggested that Giuliani joining Trump's legal team was part of an effort to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, to ultimately fire special counsel Mueller.
"And Giuliani, I totally agree with Al, Giuliani is setting up a narrative here where he is going to be the guy -- who with some credibility..." he trailed off as Rev. Sharpton interrupted.
"Giuliani will be the one that can come in and say, 'I tried to negotiate, Rosenstein is the problem.' He can give Trump the cover to fire Rosenstein," he predicted.
"Here's a guy that worked in the Justice Department," Rev. Sharpton continued. "I can hear Trump now saying, 'this guy knows the department and he knows Rosenstein was doing something that was inappropriate or something that was wrong, he knows it better than i do, I've got to listen to Rudy Giuliani's advice.'"
"I think this New York Times story, Bill, I think you're onto something," Heilemann suggested. "This story is a plant, I'm sure, I'm not demeaning The New York Times in reporting it, but this is Michael Cohen starting to lay the groundwork for why the ultimate loyalist might try to have to turn on his boss."
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