Rudy Giuliani was taken to task while making the rounds on the networks on Sunday by anchors who asked how he could defend Donald Trump’s “vile and disgusting” comments bragging about how his star power let him get away with what amounted to sexually assaulting women.
CNN “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper and MSNBC “Meet The Press” host Chuck Todd swatted down Giuliani’s attempts to dismiss Trump’s comments as unfortunate locker room talk.
“He’s essentially voicing a casual attitude towards sexual assault. What was your response when you first heard it?” CNN’s Jake Tapper asked during an interview on “State of the Union.”
Giuliani, an ardent defender of the Republican nominee, said that Trump himself was “shocked” to hear his own boasts about grabbing women he found attractive “by the pussy” and kissing them without their consent.
“When he was confronted with it, he was pretty darn shocked that he had said such terrible things, and he feels terrible about it,” the former New York City mayor said before pivoting to talk about Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.
Tapper said a change of subject wasn’t appropriate given the seriousness of what Trump said.
“He’s talking about actions that are sexual assault. He was 59 or 60 years old when he said it, this wasn’t something he said when he was 18 years old,” Tapper said. “He’s talking about a feeling of entitlement because he’s a star. He can go up to women and grab them by the vagina, and it’s okay, he won’t get in trouble for it. It’s really offensive on just a human level. Who did he do this too?”
Giuliani said Trump’s critics were hypocrites who were “throwing stones.”
“I have never said that, I have never done that,” Tapper replied. “I’m happy to throw a stone. I’ve been in locker rooms, I’ve been a member of a fraternity. I have never heard any man ever brag about being able to maul women because they get away with it. Never.”
On MSNBC, Todd accused Giuliani of imposing a double standard with his comments about the newly leaked speeches Clinton made to Wall Street banks.
“He’s not, one thing he’s not is what came across in WikiLeaks, and that is two people,” Giuliani said of the transcripts, in which Clinton describes having to take private and public positions on policy. “Hillary Clinton actually specifically described that she’s two different people, to the financial people who were giving her millions of dollars, she’s on their side and she wants to be a big part of the government. But she tells them she has to pretend to everybody else that she isn’t.”
This moment on @MeetThePress is really something. Just watch pic.twitter.com/zhQEI41PoP
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) October 9, 2016
“If you believe that Hillary Clinton says one thing in private and that means what she really is is what she is in private, should we assume what Donald Trump did in that Access Hollywood buzz is really what Donald Trump is like in private?” Todd asked, referring to the leaked 2005 tape. “I mean, that’s what you’re implying here with Hillary Clinton.”
Giuliani sputtered for a moment before saying that both candidates “have things in their personal lives that maybe if they could redo it, they would do it differently.”
Giuliani was the only Trump surrogate to publicly defend the Republican nominee on TV on Sunday after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway cancelled their scheduled appearances.
Too little, too late.
Sex, sexual talk should be something Rudy is good at with his past history with women. So why’d he only talk about in the context of bringing another woman into the conversation?
A vile and disgusting surrogate tries to defend “vile and disgusting” comments made by a vile and disgusting candidate.
I’m starting to recognize a pattern here, a bit of symmetry.
Even Conway and Priebus knew not to even try defending the indefensible.
Rudy, you’re beyond pathetic. Is there no one in your orbit who can tell you to go home…that it’s over?
I’m surprised Guiliani is not blaming Hip hop, Beyoncé and single moms for Trump’s oafish behavior. He seems to “whip those out” when convenient at folks with far less clout in society.