President Donald Trump couldn’t have picked a more appropriate spokesman for the calamity that his administration has become than Rudy Giuliani.
After an embarrassing week of interviews in which Giuliani, an attorney for Trump, appears to have further incriminated the president, and then was forced to backtrack on most of what he said, the former mayor of New York decided it would be a good idea to do even more TV appearances. And Trump seems to have approved of this strategy.
Giuliani made a brief appearance Saturday night on Fox News with Jeanine Pirro, a friend of Trump’s who is waging a propaganda effort to undercut and discredit Attorney General Jeff Sessions, along with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
Giuliani told Pirro that Trump had not violated campaign finance laws by allegedly repaying Trump fixer Michael Cohen for paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money over a past sexual relationship she had with Trump. But that line of defense seems to be a legal catch–22, because even if it were true, Trump could still be exposed to federal election violations.
Both Pirro and Giuliani claimed that, magically, the investigation of the Trump campaign’s potential collusion with Russia, and the resulting obstruction of justice that has unfolded since, have somehow lost legal standing. “Gone,” Giuliani said, referring to both allegations. He alleged that federal law enforcement officials are waging a concerted effort to undermine the president.
Giuliani also attacked Hillary Clinton—18 months after the 2016 presidential election ended.
Watch:
On Sunday morning, Giuliani appeared on ABC’s This Week, with a much different interviewer, George Stephanopoulos, who asked the former mayor several tough questions, including whether the president had made additional hush money payments to other women.
Giuliani’s response was less than convincing, and certainly wasn’t designed to stand up in a court of law.
“I’d have no knowledge of that, uh, but I would, I would, I would think if it were necessary, yes. He [Cohen] made payments for the president, or he conducted business for the president,” Giuliani said. “Which means he had legal fees, moneys laid out, and expenditures. Which I have on my bills to my clients.”
Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti also appeared on the show, calling the interview “an absolute, unmitigated disaster for Rudy Giuliani and the president.”
“It’s a train wreck,” Avenatti said. “I can’t believe that that actually just happened. I mean, what we witnessed by Rudy Giuliani may be one of the worst TV appearances by any attorney on behalf of a client in modern times.”
He added: “This guy’s all over the map over the last 72 hours on some very simple facts that should be very straightforward. I think it is obvious, George, to the American people that this is a cover–up, that they are making it up as they go along. They don’t know what to say because they have lost track of the truth.”
Other commentators had equally harsh criticisms of Giuliani’s performance. “Pathetic,” said MSNBC host Alex Witt. “He is not doing his client any favors and he’s embarrassing himself.”
Watch Giuliani’s entire ABC interview: