I don't know what to make of the Rosenstein story, could be a few different angles on this.
1. This all came from memos written by Andy 'Tampered 302s' McCabe. False/Misleading accounts of meetings and interviews seems to be his thing.
2. This is all happening after Trump ordered McCabe's memos and texts, among other things, to be declassified. It could be that McCabe Or Rosenstein himself is just trying to jump the gun and get out in front of the bombshells.
3. It could be that Rosenstein has flipped and is trying to save his ass by helping Trump. The NYT/McCabe is taking a shot at Rosenstein and hoping Trump fires him so he triggers a shitstorm leading to impeachment.
Both Rosenstein and McCabe have been fucked big style for a long time. What I think happened was that after Comey was fired, McCabe started shitting his pants because it was the clearest sign yet that the walls were closing in on him. So he runs to Rosenstein begging for help. They have a heated argument which is where the "what do you want me to do, wear a wire?" comment comes from. I suspect it wasn't a joke but being sarcastic about essentially going all in on a 6 high bluff.
According to the NYT, the meetings took place on May 16. Lisa Page was one of the people in that meeting, which is interesting because as people on Twitter have pointed out we have her texts with Stzrok from this time:
From what we can see, the money quotes are Strzok asking if Rod was going with Andy. Suggests that McCabe was maybe pressuring Rosenstein into triggering the Mueller investigation. They need this to get rid of Trump to save their ass. The other texts about "this" only helping him and not hurting him, Rosenstein either being a dead man or hero, saving his soul and so forth make sense in that context. Whatever is in the redactions should fill this out.
Fast forward to this week and Trump orders everything declassified. Now shit is getting way too real and everyone starts scrambling. The usual suspects first start with the standard argument about sources and methods and national security BS. Then Trump tweets that he met with the DOJ (aka Rosenstein) and suggests that he was told that doing itself might look bad politically.
So, instead he is telling the IG to hurry the fuck up and release it as part of the report. He says speed is important (aka before the midterms), and if worse comes to worse he can release it all himself anyway.
NOW all of a sudden this McCabe/Rosenstein shit comes out? I think Rosenstein either flipped, isn't obstructing enough, or is just the first guy to be backstabbed as McCabe tries to bring everyone down with him. The left is mad at the NYT for publishing this because it gives Trump cover to fire Rosenstein, thereby getting rid of Mueller. But Trump firing Rosenstein only benefits his enemies, so he shouldn't do it. Chaotic nonetheless.
Trump is in a great spot, he just needs to sit tight. Wait for the IG to dump everything in a few weeks, if not dump it himself in mid October. I'm glad there might be a delay here, it's too soon now.