Rudy Giuliani's lying is par for the course, but it's getting desperate: Today's talker

Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's attorney, said in an interview on CNN Wednesday there might have been "collusion" between members of the Trump campaign and Russia — but the president wasn't involved. On Thursday, Giuliani backtracked.

We should listen to Giuliani

By David Eckels Wade

Rudy Giuliani's interviews should come with complimentary fact-checking the way bad takeout should come with free antacids. But Wednesday night's CNN appearance contained a whopper even by Giuliani's standards: Amid his often reprised and just as often rebutted slander of the Mueller investigation’s "ethics," Giuliani claimed that he "never said there was no collusion between the (Trump) campaign" and Russia.

A very different New Yorker, former Sen. Daniel Moynihan, said that "everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." Facts aren't kind to Giuliani. Among President Donald Trump, Giuliani and the White House, there have been 146 denials of collusion, often emphatic: In 2017, Trump simply said, "There is no collusion," and in July 2018 he repeated, "There was no collusion." Wednesday night marked the 11th time the Trump team had to chip away at the president's iron-clad denials, leaving Trump stuck in the tuba section of a soft parade of spin, slowly unraveling the truth.

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It's a long way from Hope Hicks saying there had never been communication with "any foreign entity," to Donald Trump Jr. saying he had never planned on meeting with Russians to the revelations of the very much planned, now infamous Trump Tower meeting organized to gather political dirt from Russian operatives, and now this: The president's lawyer all but admitting there was collusion, just not by the president. 

Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation has netted eight guilty pleas — including Trump's campaign chairman, personal lawyer and national security adviser. The investigation recently revealed that the president's campaign chairman worked with the Kremlin by arming a Russian military intelligence operative with the campaign's private polling data, which could've been weaponized to target American voters.

Now, the president’s most vociferous defender is trying to separate Trump from his closest aides and advisers, perhaps even his family. It didn't work for President Richard Nixon. It's as dangerous as it would be desperate.

Michael Kinsley argued in 1988 that "a gaffe is when a politician tells the truth." For all of Giuliani's prevarication, give him credit: Wednesday night, he committed just such a gaffe. When asked whether the Mueller report should be made public, Giuliani responded, "I agree." 

After attorney general nominee William Barr signaled this week that he might withhold Mueller's report from Congress and the American people, and with so much Americans deserve to know, this might be the one time I can say with confidence: We should listen to Rudy Giuliani.

David Eckels Wade, a Democratic strategist and former chief of staff to Secretary of State John Kerry, is director of Law Works and an advisory board member of Protect the Investigation. Follow him on Twitter: @davideckelswade.

What others are saying

Nash Riggins,  The (London) Independent: "(Rudy Giuliani) literally, 100 percent did say there was no collusion. We all heard it. Fast forward a few months, and the guy is now accusing an entirely different news network of 'falsely reporting' his exact words. Not only that, Giuliani is now claiming that his boss had never said there was no collusion. But we know that’s false. Even Pinocchio wouldn’t bother lying about that one. ... This guy is the picture-perfect personification of America’s obsessive love affair with misinformation and 'alternative facts,' and he's one tiny part of the reason our society is slowly regressing into a motionless hive of ham-fisted halfwits."

Rudy Giuliani,  CNN on Wednesday: "I never said there was no collusion between the (Trump) campaign (and Russia). Or between people in the campaign. I have no idea. (If) the collusion happened, it happened a long time ago."

Rudy Giuliani, statement on Thursday: "I represent only President Trump not the Trump campaign. There was no collusion by President Trump in any way, shape or form. Likewise, I have no knowledge of any collusion by any of the thousands of people who worked on the campaign. The only knowledge I have in this regard is the collusion of the Clinton campaign with Russia which has so far been ignored."

Tom Toles,  The Washington Post: "Now there is so much evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia that even his attorney, former America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani, is walking it back. Or rather dragging its badly wounded body off the legal battlefield. Trump might have thought this far ahead, if he thought ahead. But he didn’t even care if his precious 'no collusion' defense held up over time. It was perfect for the moment he said it, which is perfect enough for Trump."

What our readers are saying

My god, for his age, that man can tap dance and backpedal with the best of them. You have to wonder if being a groveling, lying sycophant is the way Rudy Giuliani envisioned his professional and public life ending. Pretty pathetic.

— David Hoeltje

It's hysterical how quickly President Donald Trump and Giuliani seem to forget that video recordings are a thing that exist. "I never said that," one of them will say, only to be shown a dozen clips of them saying just that.

— William Travis

There was no collusion. Well, maybe there was collusion, but 45 didn't know. Well, maybe 45 knew, but he didn't order it. Well, maybe he ordered it, but he didn't participate. Well, maybe he participated, but he was just opening up a diplomatic dialogue. Well, maybe he wasn't opening up a dialogue, but it isn't a crime to talk to people. ... How far can they go?

— Jerry Vandiver

Of course Trump's campaign would team up with just about anyone to defeat Hillary Clinton. Clinton would have done the same, and probably did. All of this investigation into Russian collusion is a huge waste of time and resources.

— Jim Malefyt

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