A spokesman for the Trump campaign on Friday tried to distance the President’s reelection effort from Rudy Giuliani’s plan to urge the Ukrainian government to conduct investigations that could help Trump politically.
Yet throughout an interview on MSNBC, the spokesman, Marc Lotter, would not condemn Giuliani’s effort or commit to not using any information uncovered by a Ukrainian probe.
Giuliani told the New York Times on Thursday that he will travel to Ukraine and urge leaders there to investigate how the U.S. investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 began, as well as allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden. Recently, it was alleged that Biden tried to quash a probe into his son’s appointment to the board of a Ukrainian gas firm, but so far there is little to no evidence to support the allegation.
Asked by MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson if he would disavow Giuliani’s plan, Lotter simply distanced the campaign from Trump’s personal lawyer.
“I can tell you that Rudy Giuliani is not doing this on behalf of the campaign. He’s doing it in his capacity as a private citizen,” Lotter said.
Yet, when asked if the campaign had tried to wave Giuliani off of his plan, Lotter said he did not feel it was his role to do so.
And when asked if it’s a “slippery slope” for someone to ask a foreign government to help find damaging information on a political opponent, Lotter indicated he was interested in the results of the potential probes.
“I believe if you’re going to have somebody running for president of the United States, if there is the possibility that something inappropriate happened, then it needs to be investigated,” he replied.
Jackson then asked Lotter if he would commit to not using any information uncovered by one of the probes Giuliani is pushing for in Ukraine.
“We don’t know what he’s going to find,” Lotter said.
Pressed on how he would feel comfortable using information obtained in that way, Lotter replied, “This is not foreign interference. This is someone who is going to get information, not a government trying to meddle inside an election.”
