Rudy Giuliani's Feeble Defense Of Trump

By John Amato — May 7, 2018

As I watched the first few minutes of Rudy Giuliani's interview with ABC's This Week Sunday morning, my jaw dropped. The buffoonery that was on display was unparalleled.

The newest member of Trump's legal team sent shock waves throughout the country during his exclusive interview with Sean Hannity last Wednesday when he admitted that Trump did pay back the $130,000 of hush money Michael Cohen used to buy the silence of Stormy Daniels right before the 2016 presidential election.

After seeing the media-firestorm Rudy created, Trump came out and said Giuliani did not have his facts straight even after he had been hired almost two weeks previously.

Host George Stephanopoulos began his interview by asking "The president said you didn’t get the facts straight, so let’s try to get some facts on the table direct to begin with. The president does acknowledge meeting Stormy Daniels, correct?"

Rudy's began by cackling like a simpleton and then gave an answer as laughable as it is being disingenuous.

Giuliani, "You know, I’m not really involved in the -- in the Daniels thing. So I don’t -- I don’t know. I mean, he denies that it happened, she has written a letter denying it."

Giuliani couldn't stop talking about Stormy Daniels and suddenly he doesn't know anything?

When Stephanopoulos used Rudy's interview with Buzzfeed as a guide, Giuliani turned into the worst Trump surrogate on TV. I'm serious now. Watch the video and read the transcript below.

STEPHANOPOULOS: The other day you also told BuzzFeed, though, that at some point after the 2016 election, Michael Cohen had complained to some people that he hadn’t been paid by Donald Trump. And then -- so then you said Cohen met with Trump and told him and Giuliani said that we’ll cover your expenses, they work out this $35,000 a month retainer after that. So -- so the president did know about this after the campaign?

GIULIANI: Can’t say that. I mean, at some point, yes but it could have been recently, it could have been a while back. Those are the facts that we’re still working on. And that -- you know, may be in a little bit of dispute. This is more rumor than it is anything else. But --

STEPHANOPOULOS: But that’s what you said. You said that to BuzzFeed.

GIULIANI: But here’s the -- but here’s the -- well, yes, I mean that -- that’s one of the possibilities and one of the rumors. The reality is --

STEPHANOPOULOS: You stated it as fact.

GIULIANI: Well, maybe I did. But I -- right now, I’m at the point where I’m worrying (ph) and I can only -- I can’t prove that, I can just say it’s rumor. I can prove it’s rumor but I can’t prove it’s fact. Yet. Maybe we will.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But -- but you’ve said as -- it -- you’ve said as a matter of fact on Hannity and BuzzFeed, you talked to the Washington Post about it.

GIULIANI: I don’t know -- I don’t know how you separate fact and opinion.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, it’s --

GIULIANI: When I state an opinion, I’ll say this is my opinion. And when I state a fact, I’ll say this is a fact.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You said the president worked out a retainer agreement with Michael Cohen after the election in order to repay him --

GIULIANI: No, no --

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- for the settlement to Stormy Daniels.

GIULIANI: The second part -- the second part of it -- the last part of it, the -- the retainer agreement was to repay expenses, which turns out to have included this one to the woman that you saw on Saturday Night Live last night, trying to make more money and now our NDA with her seems to be irrelevant because she wants to break it up because she wants to make a lot more money than $130,000.

I never thought $130,000 -- I know this sounds funny to people there at home. I never thought $130,000 was a real payment, it’s a nuisance payment. When I settle this -- when it was real or a real possibility, it’s a couple million dollars, not -- not $130,000.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you -- you -- you --

GIULIANI: People don’t go away for $130,000 as a meritorious claim (ph).

STEPHANOPOULOS: You -- you did call it a settlement payment, the president did make these payments to Michael Cohen over the course of 2017, according to you. Then why did -- on April 5, why did the president deny any knowledge of the payments when in fact, he had made (ph) the payments?

GIULIANI: Well I don’t know -- I don’t know when the president learned about it, he could have learned about it after or not connected the whole thing at -- at that time. The reality is those are not facts that worry me as a lawyer.