Rudy Giuliani: ‘There’s Nothing Wrong With Taking Information From the Russians’
Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday morning, Trump attorney and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani lashed out at Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) for his harsh criticism of the behavior of President Trump that was detailed in the Mueller report. Besides calling Romney a “hypocrite,” Giuliani claimed there was “nothing wrong” with a campaign accepting help from Russia.
TRANSCRIPT:
JAKE TAPPER (State of the Union host): There are people on the campaign who were talking to Russians, right?
GIULIANI: Russians — yes. And there were people on Hillary’s campaign that were talking to Ukrainians. I mean, the reality is, you think this is the first time the Russians have interfered in an American election?
TAPPER: No, it’s definitely not. But let me ask you a question, because Mitt Romney put out a statement saying that he was — quote — “appalled” that, among other things, “fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia, including information that had been illegally obtained, that none of them acted to inform American law enforcement.”
TAPPER: Again — it’s again good news that there is insufficient evidence, but what about the willingness…
GIULIANI: Man — man, if I could tell you the things he wanted to do.
TAPPER: That Rudy Giuliani — that Mitt Romney wanted to do?
GIULIANI: No, that that guy wanted to do. Come on.
TAPPER: What do you mean the things that Mitt Romney…
(CROSSTALK)
GIULIANI: Stop the bull. Stop the bull. Stop this pious act that you weren’t digging up, trying to dig up dirt on people, putting dirt out on people.
TAPPER: Who, Mitt Romney?
GIULIANI: When he was running for president. He — I ran against him.
TAPPER: Right.
GIULIANI: So did John McCain run against him.
TAPPER: But he wasn’t accepting information from foreign…
GIULIANI: I don’t know if he was accepting information from foreign — who says that the president accepted information from foreigners? You mean people on his campaign might have done it? First of all…
TAPPER: But the Trump Tower meeting, I think, is what he was referring to, the willingness to sit down with Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. That is what Mitt Romney seems to be talking about.
GIULIANI: What a hypocrite. What a hypocrite.
TAPPER: But why is that hypocritical?
GIULIANI: Any candidate — any candidate in the whole world in America would take information, negative…
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: From a foreign source, from a hostile foreign source?
GIULIANI: Who says it’s even illegal? Who says it’s even illegal? And then does the information turn out to be false, by the way? The information that was gleaned and disseminated, every newspaper printed it. Why did “The Washington Post” print the information that came from a foreign source, when they knew it was hacked? Aren’t they just as wrong for doing that as the campaign wanting to use it? The information…
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: But why do think Mitt Romney is a hypocrite if he is saying…
GIULIANI: Because Mitt Romney did things very similar to that.
TAPPER: Taking information from Russians?
GIULIANI: No, no. There’s nothing — there’s nothing wrong with taking information from Russians.
TAPPER: There’s nothing wrong with taking information…
GIULIANI: It depends on where it came from. It depends on where it came from. You’re assuming that the giving of information is a campaign contribution. Read the report carefully.
TAPPER: Mm-hmm.
Watch the clip above, via CNN.
