Democrats believe they stand to benefit if President Donald Trump fires Rod Rosenstein, the U.S. Justice Department official who oversees the Russia probe, before November’s elections.
But they disagree about how much they should wield it as a weapon in their battle to take back Congress.
Democratic Party sources and strategists say they know that if Trump fires Rosenstein, he will ignite a firestorm of accusations that the president is attempting to shut down the investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election he won.
That will likely bolster their argument that Democrats should gain power to serve as a check on the presidency, they say.
“It would be an in-kind contribution to the Democratic Party,” said Guy Cecil, chairman of Priorities USA, a political action committee that backs Democratic candidates.
This week, Trump is due to hold his first meeting with Rosenstein since a Sept. 21 New York Times report said he considered secretly recording the president as part of a possible effort to remove him from office.
Although Trump has said he wants Rosenstein to stay in the job, axing him would give the White House the chance to put in his place an official who could restrict Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation or perhaps even fire Mueller.
For Democrats, the politics of the Russia probe, however, are complicated.
Some worry about making it a centerpiece of campaigns. Polls show candidates getting traction with voters on kitchen-table issues such as healthcare.
Others believe that if Trump removed Rosenstein he would cross a red line and galvanize left-leaning and independent voters in November, further propelling a “Blue Wave” that they hope sweeps the House of Representatives away from Republicans and improves the Democrats’ current long odds of taking the Senate.