Donald Trump‘s attorney Rudy Giuliani has started off his tenure defending the president with some seriously head-scratching moments on cable news, but Trump has publicly stood by him, for the most part. Giuliani maintains that he is the man for the job.
In a phone interview with Politico on Monday Giuliani went so far as to say that if he can’t get the job done, he has no idea who can.
“If I’m not up to it, I don’t know who is,” he said, before adding that he knows how the Department of Justice works better than most. “I know the Justice Department better than just about anyone.”
Beyond this quote, the story says that Trump has been “griping” to those close to him about Giuliani and that they expect the former NYC mayor to be sent packing if continues to bungle things.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that while she hasn’t spoken to Trump “specifically about his feelings” on Giuliani’s job performance, she gets the impression that the Giuliani hire is viewed as “added value.”
Giuliani was the source of much confusion last week, beginning with a Wednesday night appearance on Fox News’ Hannity.
Giuliani said the Stormy Daniels money was “funneled […] through the law firm and the president repaid it,” and that Trump “didn’t know about the specifics of it,” as far as he knew, but “did know about the general arrangement, that Michael [Cohen] would take care of things like this, like I take care of things like this for my clients.”
Then, Thursday morning on Fox News, Giuliani said, “Imagine if [the Daniels story] came out on October 15, 2016 in the middle of the last debate with Hillary Clinton.”
“Cohen didn’t even ask. Cohen made it go away. He did his job,” he added.
Up to that point, Trump had denied any knowledge of a Daniels payment, saying, “You have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael Cohen is my attorney, you’ll have to ask him.”
He also said “No, I don’t know” when asked if he knew where the money came from.
By Friday, Trump said, “So, Rudy knows it’s a witch hunt, he started yesterday, he’ll get his facts straight, he’s a great guy.” He also said “We’re not changing any stories.”
Even Michael Cohen got into the mix and said “Rudy Giuliani doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” By Friday afternoon, Giuliani released a statement to clarify his remarks.
Giuliani was on CNN for a phone interview Sunday as well, and he echoed Trump’s Friday remarks about “getting facts straight.”
“Well, I have just on been on board couple of weeks,” he said. “I haven’t been able to read the 1.2 million documents.”
“I am focused on the law more than the facts right now. A couple of things were fairly easy to dispose of,” he continued. “The whole situation of the $130,000 doesn’t require an analysis of the facts because it wasn’t intended as a campaign contribution. It was intended as a personal, embarrassing, harassing claim.”
[Image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images]
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