“Trump Is Screaming. He’s So Mad at Rudy”: Giuliani’s Fate Is Uncertain After Botched Interviews | Vanity Fair
Gabriel ShermanJanuary 22, 2019 7:05 pm
Giuliani attends the Conference In Support Of Freedom and Democracy In Iran on June 30, 2018.
By Anthony Devlin/Getty Images.
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.