Count on Frank Figliuzzi to make us laugh and cry in the span of 3 minutes on Deadline White House. He takes us from the ridiculous (Giuliani) to the horrifying landscape of our elections being under foreign control.
January 22, 2019

First he cracks us up, then he blows our minds. Gotta love Frank Figliuzzi.

He joined Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House Tuesday to discuss Rudy Giuliani's mischegas, and then started tiptoeing around what he thinks is truly the root of why everyone in Trump's orbit is lying their face off. First, Wallace read from a transcript of Giuliani's The New Yorker interview:

WALLACE: Frank Figliuzzi, I want to read you something about Rudy Giuliani said in The New Yorker interview out today. "Because I have been through all the tapes, I have been through all the texts, I have been through all the e-mails and I knew none existed. Reporter: Wait, what tapes have you gone through? Rudy: I shouldn't have said tapes." Frank?

FIGLIUZZI: He shouldn't say anything at this point. He's gone through things that don't -- he's gone through things that don't exist. He is really the worst enemy of the president, and we're in an upside-down world, Nicolle, where the prosecutor in the case, the Special Counsel, issues a press release to say that an allegation of crime against the president is not accurate from Buzzfeed, and the president's defense counsel goes on television to incriminate his client. So that's the world we're living in. I keep coming back to what's already been said, is why all the lying about Russia? And Nicolle, I am left now with only one conclusion, that the news on Russia, the truth about Russia, is so bad that no one can afford to let it leak out. We have too many people covering up the same thing over and over again and the only conclusion I have is that it's about as bad as it can be.

Wallace went on to probe further, suggesting a wide range of things that would frighten the Trump circle into lying about everything presented to them by every journalist and lawyer under the sun. That's when Figliuzzi dropped the theory that Wallace later said literally blew her mind.

WALLACE: So what would that be? Let me just press you, and would that be a bribe, would that be sanctions relief in exchange for a plot of land that Don, Jr. said we don't have a plot of land, don't have a developer. Doesn't mean it wasn't promised. What could it be?

FIGLIUZZI: I think it's worse that than. I -- listen, I'm developing a real sense here that there is now knowledge within the Trump circle that the Russians did assist with, in a successful way, the winning of the presidency. I am increasingly convinced that this is what people are trying to cover.

Wow. All of a sudden the people back in 2016 who were claiming the election results were not legitimate aren't looking quite so wackadoodle, are they? Or maybe not so all of a sudden. Isn't this truly what has been being slowly revealed, bit by bit, since his second debate with Clinton in the summer of 2016? And even before that? Just ask, oh, I don't know, SEVENTEEN U.S. intelligence agencies?

Anyhow, Wallace couldn't let him keep her hanging like that, being the journalist she is, and also human...

WALLACE: Frank, you can't leave me there. Tell me what pointing you in that direction.

FIGLIUZZI: So, if we look at -- I'm particularly focused on Paul Manafort, right, and his -- his incredible reticence and reluctance to fully cooperate. Mike Flynn and the judge saying you're not there yet, I'm not ready to accept the -- to handle sentencing yet, the Trump family members, Cohen saying they're getting briefed. The polling data going from Manafort to Russia. All of this points to knowledge, in my mind, that the Russians were -- it was understood that the Russians were assisting the campaign, and that they did so in such a way -- remember, we have over two dozen Russians indicted already between hacking and social media propaganda in support of the campaign. We have Vladimir Putin saying in Helsinki to a reporter's question, did you tell your government to put their full force and support behind candidate trump? Answer, "Yes." I believe there's knowledge of that, I believe there's great fear about the extent to which they assisted. And I think that's at the root of what people are lying about.

So, there you have it. Doesn't it make you wonder why there was ever a question? And what happens when that becomes apparent, to all his appointments? To all the executive orders? To all the judges? All the children separated from their parents STILL? What then? How many generations will this take to repair?

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