Giuliani Calls Into Fox To Clean Up Earlier ‘Second Meeting’ Remarks, Leaving Hosts Baffled

Only the best people…

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani created major waves Monday morning when he showed up on both Fox News and CNN and said that collusion wasn’t a crime — implying that the Trump campaign cooperated with Russian officials during the election — and seemingly disclosed there was a previously unreported second Trump Tower meeting that took place days before the June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer that Donald Trump Jr. arranged to gather dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Obviously aware that he had completely stepped in it during the pair of disastrous cable news hits, Giuliani called into Fox News’ Outnumbered hours later to walk back his comments and offer up a clarification. And, in classic Giuliani fashion, he only made things more confusing while leaving the hosts — who tried like hell to give him numerous lifelines — totally baffled.

Honestly, it is extremely difficult to follow what Giuliani was saying while speaking to hosts Harris Faulkner and Melissa Francis. He seemed to be talking about multiple alleged meetings that occurred that he is saying never happened while going into more details about the supposed meetings despite a pre-planning meeting never having been publicly discussed before Monday morning.

Below are three video clips of the interaction, via Talking Point Memo’s Josh Marshall.

Rudy: Take Two! I Meant to Say The Pre-Planning Meeting Did NOT Happen. pic.twitter.com/Zg87XYkwmG

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 30, 2018

Here's part two of Rudy's walk back. pic.twitter.com/1WCpSaccvQ

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 30, 2018

Here's part 3 of Rudy's walk back where Foxer basically says Rudes WTF are you talking about. pic.twitter.com/EgMpm8eiJd

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 30, 2018

After Giuliani rambled on a bit about this meeting — which he says he is being told allegedly happened three days before the Russian lawyer meeting — and other supposed meetings that apparently never occurred either, Faulkner noted that “what we heard you say today was the president was not at that meeting — that actually takes on a question that has not been asked or even suggested. So why did you say that?”

Giuliani responded by bringing up the details of the pre-planning meeting that “has been leaked that hasn’t been published yet” while stating that the alleged attendees of that meeting were Trump Jr., Rick Gates, Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner and adding that it is a figment of Cohen’s imagination or “he’s lying.” This led Faulkner to attempt to recap what Giuliani was saying about the meeting and asking if he was stating that was “the meeting that Michael Cohen says the president knew about ahead of time, but you say the president was not there?”

“No, no!” Giuliani yelled. “I don’t know! All I have is two reporters telling me Cohen told them there was a meeting three days before, with a group of people that I said, and that the president was not there. He didn’t say the president knew about it.”

Eventually, with America’s Mayor insisting the meeting never happened, Francis jumped into the fray.

“I don’t think any of that really addresses the question of why you would say he wasn’t at the meeting?” she asked, obviously befuddled. “Why are you saying that the president wasn’t at the meeting? I understand those two meetings that you just set out there, but that doesn’t explain why you’re saying he wasn’t there. Who asked if he was there? No one asked if he was there.”

The Trump attorney explained that because Cohen is alleging the meeting took place he is making clear “the president was not at that meeting,” causing Francis to furrow her brow and reply “hmm.”

“Two alleged meetings — first meeting, a group people, not the president –– that group of people says the meeting didn’t take place” he added. “Only person who has alleged it is Cohen. Second meeting, the president’s office, in walks Donald Trump Jr., says, ‘Let me meet with the Russians,’ never took place, didn’t happen.”

Francis, still confused, stated, “To say he wasn’t there implies that it happened and he wasn’t there.”

Following Giuliani’s call, the panel wondered aloud why “he answered a question that hadn’t been asked yet” while saying that it “still didn’t quite make sense.”