Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani ran for president in 2008 but managed to get close to the White House eight years later, finding an amorphous role often defined as the personal lawyer for Donald Trump. Still, over the past few years, Giuliani has often appeared on TV and in the press representing Trump in a variety of ways.
That continued on Thursday when Giuliani appeared on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show to share text messages in an effort to defend himself. Instead, he may have found a way to make things worse. With an impeachment inquiry against Trump that was sparked by a whistleblower report centered around the president’s phone call with Ukrainian’s president making news, and Giuliani’s name prominently included in that news, the former mayor of New York decided the best course of action was to turn to cable news.
Earlier in the day, a story in The Atlantic included quotes from a loud phone call Giuliani had with reporter Elania Plott and set the scene for the TV spot. “You should be happy for your country that I uncovered all this,” Giuliani said in the story. His assumption that he would be a hero carried into his TV appearance on Thursday night, as Giuliani brought with him text messages he alleges show the U.S. State Department knew what he was doing in meeting with Ukrainian officials.
Giuliani’s main complaint was that the whistleblower got it wrong. He wasn’t acting as a rogue agent for Trump — those in the state department, he claims, knew what he was doing, whatever it was, in the Ukraine.
Wow. Rudy Giuliani is on Ingraham's show implicating the State Department in the Ukraine scandal.
"The whistleblower falsely alleges that I was operating on my own. Well, I wasn't operating on my own." pic.twitter.com/4o1feYTZFU
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 27, 2019
Rudy quite literally read off large-print text messages on his phone at various points in the interview.
Here's Rudy Giuliani reading personal text messages live on air in an effort to prove just how deeply involved in this Ukraine mess the State Department is pic.twitter.com/4uUWiE5mjA
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 27, 2019
“They basically knew everything I was doing,” Giuliani said.
The impeachment inquiry sparked an initial firestorm that was made even more intense on Thursday by the full release of the whistleblower report and testimony from the acting national intelligence chief about that report. Giuliani’s TV appearance on Thursday was especially strange because it came on a day when multiple people on the House Intelligence Committee wondered during testimony what Giuliani was doing, and whether he even had a security clearance to do whatever he’s done on Trump’s behalf.
People kind of freaked out over the appearance, which did little to help the former mayor.
That no one has locked Rudy up in a basement to keep him off TV is proof that the White House is terribly unprepared for impeachment.
— Helen Kennedy (@HelenKennedy) September 27, 2019
Rudy Giuliani, trying to adjust to the changing political landscape pic.twitter.com/ozQSzRi6aL
— Gone Fishin’ (@samthielman) September 27, 2019
https://twitter.com/matthewjdowd/status/1177359369530499072
https://twitter.com/AlexThomasDC/status/1177421428871880704
this is going well pic.twitter.com/Wc67JW6MLx
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) September 27, 2019
Meanwhile, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris was on another network calling for an investigation into Giuliani’s actions with Ukraine on Thursday.
WATCH: Sen. Harris calls for investigation into Rudy Giuliani's interactions with Ukrainian officials. pic.twitter.com/tYY82Jg8jF
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 26, 2019
Overall, not a great day for the president’s lawyer.