Chris Cuomo is one of the only CNN hosts who is willing and/or able to book prominent guests from President Donald Trump‘s White House. As evidenced multiple times during appearances by Kellyanne Conway, those conversations get heated fast and usually go nowhere.
Wednesday night, it was Rudy Giuliani‘s turn in the Cuomo Prime Time spotlight. We’ve already posted about the major highlight from the chat — that the president’s attorney is now claiming he’s “never said there was no collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia. But the conversation went on for more than 20 minutes, and there was quite a bit to sort through.
Notably, Giuliani tried to put some distance between Trump and his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort by saying that the president was unaware of the Russia-friendly platform shaped by Manafort.
“Chris, come on, you’ve been around politics,” Giuliani said. “Candidates don’t know a damn thing about the platform.”
The two went on to battle over the president’s alleged plea to former FBI director James Comey to take it easy on former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
“Let’s say he said, ‘Please, Mr. Comey, go easy on the poor general,'” Giuliani said. “When I was a prosecutor, that must have happened at least a hundred times.”
“Not by somebody who could take you out,” Cuomo replied.
“Oh, absolutely,” Giuliani said.
“Who?” Cuomo asked.
“I’m not going to tell you who,” Giuliani said. “They’re all privileged conversations.”
Moments later, while thinking Giuliani for appearing, Cuomo said, without any apparent irony, “I appreciate you taking the time and laying it out. This is very helpful to the audience.”
Watch above, via CNN.
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