In a Sunday morning interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” host Jake Tapper grilled former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani over the New York Times report revealing that Donald Trump may have avoided paying federal income tax for almost 20 years.
Giuliani repeatedly insisted that the Times’ report only shows that Trump is a smart businessman.
Tapper began the interview by asking Giuliani if the Trump campaign is disputing the authenticity of the 1995 tax documents obtained by the New York Times. Giuliani said that he could only go by the Times reporting before arguing that Trump followed the law and had an obligation take advantage of the tax code.
“The man’s a genius. He knows how to operate the tax code for the benefit of the people he’s serving,” he said.
Giuliani later added that Trump had an obligation to his investors and to his bank to pay as few taxes as possible.
“If he didn’t take advantage of those tax deductions or tax advantages that he had, he could be sued because his obligation as a businessman is to make money for his enterprise and to save money for his enterprise,” he said. “It would have been insane for him not to take advantage of it.”
Tapper also noted that the tax documents revealed that Trump lost a considerable amount of money.
“He’s selling himself as a brilliant businessman. He lost almost a billion dollars in 1995. That doesn’t sound particularly brilliant to me,” he said.
“Yes it does, since he came back,” Giuliani replied. “Isn’t that the history of America?”
“It shows what a genius he is,” the former mayor added. “It shows he was able to preserve his enterprise and that he was able to build it.”
Tapper continued to push Giuliani.
“He’s the first major nominee since 1978 not to release his tax returns,” Tapper pointed out. “If you are proud of that, that’s great. But I don’t think you should be.”
The CNN host also confronted Giuliani over Trump’s comments suggesting that Hillary Clinton isn’t “loyal to Bill.”
“Donald Trump launched a wild and unsubstantiated attack against Hillary Clinton last night,” Tapper said. “Is that normal, stable behavior for a presidential nominee to launch an unsubstantiated attack?”
“After she called him a racist, a misogynist, a xenophobic — I don’t know — schizophrenic and I don’t know what else she called him at the end of the debate, I think it’s fair game,” Giuliani responded.
“Just to make stuff up?” Taper asked in return. “Wild accusations, Hillary Clinton is cheating on Bill? No proof of it whatsoever. Everything’s fair game?”
Giuliani responded by saying that Trump made a “sarcastic remark” about Bill Clinton’s past.
Watch the full interview via CNN:
Well then, if his tax returns show what a genius he is, then he should be releasing all of his tax returns in the future.
Then the American people can see his brilliance in all its glory.
Also, next time he wants to talk about e-mails, when is he going to release all his former employees from their NDA’s so they can impart their first hand knowledge of his genius AND kindness.
Or is he hiding something?
Did you see the article about Trump’s treatment of women at The Apprentice. One gem: he commented that one woman had a nice ass, and compared her to Ivanka.
YEEEUCKKKKKKK!
Tapper is really pissed. Interesting. Giuliani is just gross, in every way. Ugh.
Giuliani, has fully devolved into a Neanderthal just like Carl Paladino. After the election is over, it will be good not to have to hear every day from the hugely successful genius and his pathological liar, delusional spokespersons the media feels obligated to inflict on us.