"TRUMP IS SCREAMING. HE'S SO MAD AT RUDY": GIULIANI'S FATE IS UNCERTAIN AFTER BOTCHED INTERVIEWS

[Judi Lynn]

As Giuliani’s unforced errors pile up, former West Wing officials and 2016 campaign veterans are privately debating what’s gone wrong with Rudy.

BY GABRIEL SHERMAN
JANUARY 22, 2019 7:05 PM

Every time Rudy Giuliani opens his mouth in front of a reporter, something bad seems to happen. Donald Trump’s beleaguered lawyer has, over the past few weeks, given one disastrous interview after another. The latest fiasco came Monday, when Giuliani participated in a rambling Q&A with The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner. After telling Chotiner he only had a moment before he took a shower, Giuliani unspooled a series of bizarre responses, at one point in the conversation even admitting he worried that his legacy would be that “he lied for Trump.”

Trump is “furious” with Giuliani’s recent botched press appearances, two Republicans briefed on the president’s thinking told me. What makes the most recent interviews so frustrating to Trumpworld is that, on Friday, the president secured his biggest victory yet when Robert Mueller’s spokesman issued a rare public denial of BuzzFeed’s explosive report alleging Trump had directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about Trump Tower Moscow. “Before Rudy stepped in it, Mueller had basically called BuzzFeed ‘fake news,’” a Republican close to the White House said. According to sources, a debate is playing out inside the West Wing over Giuliani’s future. Trump is being encouraged by several people, including Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, to dump Giuliani before it’s too late, while outside advisers Corey Lewandowski and Dave Bossie are lobbying Trump to keep Giuliani. “Trump is screaming. He’s so mad at Rudy,” one of the sources said. (“No, he’s not pissed. He just wants it clarified,” Giuliani told CNN’s Dana Bash on Tuesday, when asked about the president’s response to the interviews.) The White House had not responded to a request for comment by press time.

As Giuliani’s unforced errors pile up, former West Wing officials and 2016 campaign veterans are privately debating what’s gone wrong with Rudy. Why, they ask, is he making statements that so obviously damage his client? A former White House official speculated that maybe Giuliani “has lost his mind.” But there are other, more charitable ways of interpreting Giuliani’s interviews. As I’ve previously reported, the Trump-Giuliani relationship hasn’t been good for weeks. Giuliani has said privately that he “hates the job” and that Mueller’s final report will be “horrific” for Trump. Facing these challenges and pressures, it’s understandable he would make mistakes, the thinking goes. “Everyone who works for Trump screws up because there’s no way to please the guy,” an outside Trump adviser said.

But, frustrating as the job may be, Giuliani also may be addicted to it. Friends said the former New York mayor was embittered after being out of the limelight for years following his failed 2008 presidential campaign. He’s been exhilarated by the press attention that comes with being Trump’s lawyer. Sources said Giuliani often books his own interviews and frequently texts with television news anchors. “There’s a school of thought that it’s better to be famous and ridiculed than ignored,” a Giuliani friend told me. But the media environment has become vastly more complicated than it was a decade ago, the last time Giuliani was on the national stage, and he has struggled to adapt. “This has been a trial by fire for him,” the friend said. “He can’t just say whatever he wants, because he’s being fact-checked on Twitter. Every time he does anything he gets caught.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/01/giulianis-fate-is-uncertain-after-interviews

[unblock]

1. 182 unforced errors is fine, but he draws the line at 183!

[SHRED]

2. MF45 hates when the truth leaks out

[blur256]

3. Just this

[Midnightwalk]

4. If I believed in conspiracy theories

I’d suggest that the intelligence community is tired of these bozos and have been spiking his covfefe with LSD and truth serum.

I know that isn’t true. Maybe he’s just an idiot.

[keithbvadu2]

9. Roger Stone claimed that Chief of Staff Gen John Kelly may be drugging Trump.

Roger Stone claimed that Chief of Staff Gen John Kelly may be drugging Trump.

https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2017/09/11/roger-stone-it-s-possible-white-house-chief-staff-john-kelly-having-trump-drugged/217906

Is Trump snorting speed?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211550377

[MaryMagdaline]

5. He's so used to the days of the NY press covering for him. His bafoonery is in the open now

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. THIS:

embittered after being out of the limelight for years.....
He’s been exhilarated by the press attention that comes with being Trump’s lawyer. S
ources said Giuliani often books his own interviews and frequently texts with television news anchors.

Yeah, that does come across. You can see it in the interviews. He loves being relevant again, even tho it is a negative experience for him and Trump.

But what is Trump getting from all this, and why does he put up with it?

[Hassler]

7. Jailiani has always been a lying fool. He's the perfect lawyer for Chump.

[ProfessorPlum]

8. Jailiani - ha ha

[lagomorph777]

14. I just call him Bugeyes

[ThoughtCriminal]

10. If he fires him, finding a replacement may be difficult

He will have to find somebody:

Willing to never get paid.
Willing to kill their career.
Willing to lose your friends and respect from your profession
Willing to take abuse from an imbecile client and his corrupt, idiot family.
Willing to watch client disregard most of your advice.
Willing to have your client call you a liar.
Willing to tell obvious lies on national and international media, not just Fox.
Willing to end up on the uglier chapters of future history books.
Willing to be disbarred.
Willing to risk prison.
Willing to sell your soul for nothing and go to Hell.

Yeah, they're going to line up for that.

[AwakeAtLast]

12. Plus, he'll sing like a canary. n/t

[Blue Owl]

11. Tee hee hee

[FakeNoose]

13. I wonder if Cheeto is paying Rudy? I'll bet not

Maybe that's why he can't "fire" him? If Rudy is working for the glory and not charging Cheeto, it would make a lot of sense. So many lawyers have quit or been fired by Cheeto, and yet Rudy remains his lawyer/friend in spite of his unforced errors.

[Scruffy1]

15. The media has always given him way too much leeway.

This is the man who got the emergency center to be placed in the World Trade Towers because it was closer to his mistresses place than the recommended site. He was mostly AWOL after 9/11. His whole "broken windows" spiel was always just nonsense for the hairdos to nod their heads to. He got a lot of press as a prosecutor but had little to do with the actual cases that had been worked on for years. I think he's a lot like Trump-all hat and no cattle. No competent attorney would run his mouth like he does. Just lately he let slip that there were tape recordings of Trumps conversations with various parties. He simply can't quit talking. One thing the public should learn is to be aware how willing the press is to be complicit in building up hacks like Giuliani's reputation so they can have someone to always put on air or interview. His narcissism knows no bounds.

[SWBTATTReg]

16. I wonder if G and rump have some kind of nefarious history in NYC? After all, dealing w/ the mob ..

is almost a given in NYC from what I hear. I'm not saying that rump is the mob, or such, but paying off folks in NYC seems to be a trend. G is probably just as bad, in wanting payoffs, especially when a developer wants to get special treatment for his / her project in NYC. I wouldn't be surprised. Otherwise, why does rump continue to deal w/ G? Something is not right here, and I suspect that there is more to this story than we know now. I do recall where a NY prosecutor or something actually refused or let slip by prosecutions of people just recently here...I can't recall all of the specifics, but folks have been saying why hasn't more happen up there in NY?