YA WON’T BELIEVE THIS ONE FROM GIULIANI
Don’s lawyer insists ‘truth isn’t truth’ in bizarre TV interview
He can't handle “the truth.”
President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said "truth isn't truth" to a stunned Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday as they discussed spe- cial counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing Russia investigation.
The former mayor made the bizarre claim as he stated the case for President Trump not sitting down with Mueller. He believed such an interview would not reveal anything of note because of the faulty na- tureofwitnesses'recollections.
“It's somebody's version of the truth, not the truth,” Giu- liani told Todd. “Truth is truth,” Todd re- sponded.
“Truth isn't truth,” Giuliani contended.
The comment appeared to throw Todd for a loop. “This is going to become a bad meme,” he correctly predicted.
Sure enough, the internet immediately seized on Giulia- ni's unfortunate choice of words.
“Truth isn't truth — Rudy Giuliani. Well not in this White House,” tweeted Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly.
Conservative commentator and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol repeated Todd's as- sertion tweeting “Truth is truth.”
Former United States Attor- ney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, who was fired by the Trump administration, sarcastically offered legal advice for Giuliani.
“Rudy Giuliani: ‘Truth isn't truth.' Try that one with a jury,” he wrote on Twitter.
Sunday's awkward moment of television was reminiscent of Todd's now infamous January 2017 interview with Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway where she used the term “alternative facts” to justify former White House speaker's Sean Spicer's demonstrably false assertions about attendance at the President's inauguration in Washington, D.C.
“Alternative facts are not facts — they're falsehoods," Todd incredulously told Conway.
Giuliani's startling assertion also appeared to be in line with a statement the President made during a visit to Kansas City last month, where he essentially told followers not to believe their own eyes.
“What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening,” Trump said, repeating the refrain that the “fake news” is to blame for his troubles.
Mueller's team is investigating whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election won by Trump. Giuliani admitted that the reason for the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign aides and a Russian lawyer, arranged by Donald Trump Jr., was that they had been promised dirt on Hillary Clinton.
However, Giuliani told Todd that nothing from the meeting could lead to any charges against Trump.
“It turned out to be a meeting about another subject and it was not pursued at all,” he said. “Any meeting in regards to getting information about your opponent is something any candidate's staff would take.”
The Trump team had previously asserted the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower was about Russian adoption. The President has also tried to distance himself from that sitdown, though according to CNN, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen told investigators his boss knew about the meeting before it happened.
"The President of the United States wasn't at that meeting, he didn't know about that meeting, he found out about it after," Giuliani told Todd. "By the time he found out about it, it was nothing. If this is their case for collusion, good luck Mueller."
On Saturday, it was revealed in The New York Times that White House counsel Don McGahn has been cooperating with the special counsel. Giuliani told Todd that Trump didn't raise executive privilege or attorney-client privilege because his team believed that fully participating would be the quickest way to bring the investigation to a close.
"The President encouraged him to testify, is happy that he did, is quite secure that there is nothing in the testimony that will hurt the President," Giuliani insisted on his "Meet the Press" appearance.
Trump ripped the Times story in a series of tweets earlier Sunday.
"The failing @nytimes wrote a Fake piece today implying that because White House Councel Don McGahn was giving hours of testimony to the Special Councel, he must be a John Dean type 'RAT,'" Trump wrote. "But I allowed him and all others to testify — I didn't have to. I have nothing to hide ...... "